


Flynn and Carrie Face the Music

by SquirrelNo2



Series: Instrument of Chaos [9]
Category: Julie and The Phantoms (TV 2020)
Genre: (times two not counting canon), Alternate Universe - Time Travel, Character Turned Into a Ghost, Enemies to Lovers, F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-26
Updated: 2021-01-11
Packaged: 2021-03-10 20:22:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 18
Words: 31,730
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28333056
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SquirrelNo2/pseuds/SquirrelNo2
Summary: Flynn and Carrie made it through their time travel adventure. They're ready to write it off as a fluke and go back to a comfortable state of animosity, but Carrie can't exactly go anywhere now that she never existed. With Carrie struggling with her insecurities, Bobby hanging out with the band like that's normal, and Flynn's unacknowledged fears rising to the surface, even a relatively simple fix seems like a daunting task for Flynn, Julie, and their ever-growing cohort of ghosts.It would probably go a lot easier if Flynn or Carrie or Bobby were the type of people to admit how they were feeling.
Relationships: Bobby | Trevor Wilson & Alex Mercer & Luke Patterson & Reggie Peters, Flynn & Reggie Peters & Alex Mercer & Luke Patterson, Flynn/Carrie Wilson, Minor or Background Relationship(s)
Series: Instrument of Chaos [9]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1953958
Comments: 430
Kudos: 103





	1. Super Ultra-Hard Mode

**Author's Note:**

> I'm baaaaack.  
> Aiming for a daily update schedule, since I have a pretty clear idea of this story after all the time I spent figuring out even tiny details. So much time. So many tiny details.  
> All ships are the same as previous fics in the series, I just don't know how prominent they'll be in this so I didn't want to tag them since that gets confusing and frustrating.  
> Also! Thank you to Rellavent for giving me the title, I appreciate you greatly.

Flynn managed to convince Carrie to go stay in the studio with the guys that night after they came back. She wasn’t sure how well that would go over, especially in the long run, but it wasn’t like Carrie could go home. Besides, at least the Molinas were used to playing host for ghosts.

(When Flynn said Carrie belonged in a horror movie, this wasn’t really what she meant.)

Flynn stood awkwardly outside the studio as Julie tried to give Carrie a tour. Carrie was having none of it, sourly reminding Julie every other word that Carrie had spent half her childhood here, and just because Julie didn’t remember it didn’t mean she had to hold Carrie’s hand like she was a child.

(Carrie wasn’t wrong, but it was mean of her to say it.)

“Hey,” Alex said, surprising Flynn. He half-grinned when she jumped. “I was wondering – you can see me and Luke now, right?”

“Yeah,” Flynn said. “Who knows why. Probably Julie’s fault, though, let’s be real.”

Alex snorted.

“Right,” he said. “That’s probably the best guess we’ll get. Why are you out here? Are you upset?”

So this was that famed ‘softer touch’ Julie had told Flynn about. She could see what her friend had meant.

“It’s none of your business,” Flynn said loftily.

“Ok,” Alex said. “See, I thought we were friends…”

“Oh my god, fine! Ok! It’s just… weird to think Carrie doesn’t exist.” Flynn bit her lip, watching Carrie snap at Reggie for trying to make friends.

“She’s going to do something stupid,” Flynn said.

“Ok,” Alex said. “So do we talk her out of it?”

“No,” Flynn said. “I have to go do the stupid thing first so she realises how stupid it is.”

Alex chased after her as she strode away.

“I do not understand your relationship at all,” he said.

“Great, that’s three of us, it’s a club now,” Flynn said. “Do you want to make t-shirts while I go do this?”

“No, I want to go with you because you just told me you were doing something stupid,” Alex said. “Or, you know, talk you out of it, but I think I know you well enough to know how that would go.”

Flynn paused, glancing at him as he caught up to her. That was weirdly flattering.

“I missed you guys,” she said quietly.

“Weren’t we there?” Alex teased. Flynn had given them a very brief, SparkNotes version of the story, glossing over who Carrie’s parents were and how they’d gotten her erased, among other things. To Flynn’s surprise, Carrie hadn’t offered up any of the details she’d omitted.

“Not really,” Flynn said, hunching her shoulders slightly. She started walking again, trying not to remember the last time she’d made this trip.

“Well, we’re all here now,” Alex said softly. “You don’t have to do… whatever this is alone. We’ll help your friend.”

“She’s not my friend,” Flynn said.

“Ok,” Alex said. Flynn side-eyed him as she halted at the bus stop.

“You sound like you don’t believe me,” she said.

“I’m just trying to figure out why you time-travelled with somebody you don’t like,” Alex said, raising his hands defensively. Flynn rolled her eyes.

“Not like we did it on purpose. If we had, I definitely would’ve gone somewhere else.”

“What, you’ve got something against the nineties?”

“I didn’t really like that I couldn’t talk to anybody,” Flynn said. “I was there, and so was everybody but Julie and Nick, and I couldn’t _tell_ you anything. And Willie –“

She cut herself off, unwilling to lay that particular weight on Alex. He had enough to worry about with life as it was. Or death. Whatever.

“You talked to Willie?” he said.

“Yeah,” Flynn said. “I was hoping he could help. We needed magic to get back, so…”

“He suggested Caleb, didn’t he?” Alex asked quietly.

“Pretty sure that’s on the list of things Willie would _not_ want me to talk about,” Flynn said. “It’s the unspoken pact of people who use humour to hide their feelings.”

“Yeah, it’s not that hard to figure out when you know him, and I seem to be on the short list of people he actually talks to about that stuff,” Alex said with no small amount of pride. “It’s ok. I don’t know the details of what it was like for him, but I know he never realised how bad Caleb really was.”

“It was like I heard two layers of what he was saying,” Flynn admitted. “What he wanted Willie to hear, and what he meant.”

“That’s Caleb, all right,” Alex said grimly. He studied her closely. “How are you doing, though?”

“Oh my god, what is it with you guys?” Flynn said. “I’m not going to break!”

“Caleb’s club scared you the first time around, for good reason,” Alex said. “He scares _me_ , not that it’s hard.”

“You’re pretty brave,” Flynn said. “Doing anything with anxiety is like. Super ultra-hard mode for bravery.”

“It is,” Alex said, shoving his hands in his pockets. “So where are we going?”

“Nowhere,” Flynn muttered.

“Sure,” Alex said. “You know I’m just gonna follow you, right?”

Flynn’s phone rang just as the bus pulled up. Flynn hurried on, fumbling with her bus pass and her phone as she tried to use both at once.

“Flynn! Where did you go? Are you ok? You just disappeared, and I don’t know how to talk to your ghost friend.” It was Julie, talking at that particular lightning speed that meant her worries were about to overflow. Flynn felt a pang of guilt for worrying her best friend. She’d been so preoccupied with protecting Julie and Carrie from the timeline changes, she’d forgotten that Flynn herself was just as capable of hurting people, even if on accident.

Flynn opted for the easy response first.

“She’s not my friend,” Flynn said. She was already tired of repeating this.

“Oh,” Julie said. “ _Oh_. Flynn, you know you really don’t get to tease me about dating dead people now.”

Flynn sputtered indignantly.

“Ok, you don’t know why now,” she managed to get out finally, “but that is the worst possible thing you could have said. How did you even _get_ there, oh my god, Jules.”

“You said you weren’t friends,” Julie said. “Was the easier answer supposed to be that you’re mortal enemies?”

“Yes!” Flynn exclaimed. “Because we are!” She paused, thinking about the truce she’d made with Carrie. “On hiatus, I guess,” she amended. Because Flynn was the responsible one.

Alex snickered. Flynn glared at him until he took a step back, nearly into some old lady across the aisle, looking sufficiently cowed.

“Look, I just had something to do,” Flynn said. “Mostly so Carrie doesn’t do something completely stupid and haunt her old house or something.”

“So we’re going to her house!” Alex exclaimed triumphantly. Flynn raised her eyebrows at him.

“I’m on the phone, you can’t just interrupt,” she said loftily. Alex frowned, and Flynn nudged him with her foot, smiling to show she didn’t mean it.

“You’re just mad I figured it out,” Alex said. It was Flynn’s turn to frown at him, and he smirked at her with far too much pride for a simple bit of guesswork.

“You’re sure you’re ok?” Julie asked. “We barely even know what happened. Do you want to come talk it out?”

“Look, if somebody doesn’t do this Carrie will get stubborn and mean about doing it herself and end up traumatising herself,” Flynn said.

“Luke said that Carrie said we grew up together,” Julie said softly. “Are you gonna be ok?”

“Yeah,” Flynn said. After Julie’s house that was actually Carrie’s dad’s house in the nineties, it would be like Carrie had moved or something. She was more surprised by what Julie had said. “You can’t see Carrie?”

Now that she thought about it, Julie hadn’t replied to any of the things Carrie said. She’d paused, but always a little late, the way Flynn had before she’d been able to see the guys and just had to go off what Julie’s face was doing.

“No,” Julie said. “It’s kind of weird… we didn’t know Willie that long before we could see him, I’m not really used to it.”

“We’ve met other ghosts we can’t see,” Flynn said. “Me more than you. Although by the way, I can definitely see all the guys now and no, I don’t know why, but I bet it’s your fault, with all your awesome magic stuff.”

“Oh my god, what?” Julie shrieked.

“Jules, it’s my stop,” Flynn said.

“Ok, ok, I will let you go – is Alex with you?”

“Yeah,” Flynn said. “He followed me. Like a weird, blond puppy. Annoying like a puppy, too, though I will admit he doesn’t slobber.”

“Thanks,” Alex muttered as Julie laughed.

“Good,” she said. “Flynn, just – I don’t know what happened in the past. But I’m worried about you, ok? You’re always helping me.”

“I am pretty wonderful,” Flynn said.

“So let me help you,” Julie pressed. “You and I both know you’re bad at that.”

Flynn smiled faintly.

“I will,” she promised. “I think today I’m just… tired.”

“Text me when you’re done,” Julie said. “Especially if you go straight home. Deal?”

“Deal,” Flynn said. “Not like Alex wouldn’t tell you everything.”

“It’s not about what I’ll find out, it’s about what you’ll tell me,” Julie said, and if it was anyone else Flynn might be annoyed they knew her so well. But Julie?

Yeah, that made sense, and it warmed Flynn inside as she stepped off the bus.

“I’ll text you, Jules,” Flynn said.

“I love you, Flynn,” Julie said.

“Love you, too,” Flynn said. “Good luck with your new live-in demon.”

“Wait, what?” Julie said. “That’s a joke, right? She’s not actually a demon?”

Flynn laughed. Julie groaned.

“I’m hanging up now,” Julie informed Flynn.

Alex shoved his hands in his pockets as Flynn put her phone away.

“Where are we going?” he asked.

“We still have a walk,” Flynn said. “Unless you want to take one of those star tour things where they take you past the celebrities’ houses?”

“I thought we were going to Carrie’s house,” Alex said. Flynn grinned, enjoying the confusion on his face.

“Yeah, we are,” she said. “Come on.”

There was no barbed wire. Flynn considered climbing the fence, but since she had no idea who lived there now, that seemed like a bad plan. As she peered through the gate, a feeling of wrongness settled in her gut.

The landscaping was all wrong, different trees planted in uncovered dirt and more rocks than grass. She couldn’t see the helicopter landing pad. The dance studio Trevor had added on when Carrie and Flynn and Julie were ten was nowhere to be seen.

“Flynn?”

Flynn tried to hide the way Alex shocked her out of her reverie. From the look he was giving her, she wasn’t successful.

“What?” Flynn asked.

“What exactly is your plan now that we’re here? To keep Carrie from coming here.”

“Right,” Flynn said. “Uh. I was gonna take some pictures? So she can see it without, like, _seeing_ it.”

“Sounds good,” Alex said as Flynn fumbled with her phone. “Are you ok, though?”

Flynn paused, thumb halfway to the camera button.

“What? Yeah,” she said. “It’s not _my_ house.”

“You said you’d known Carrie for years,” Alex said. “You were here a lot, right?”

“What do you know about it,” Flynn muttered.

“Well, I get that feeling a lot at Julie’s house,” Alex said, shrugging. “Because Bobby lived there before. So I kind of know a lot about it.”

Flynn lowered her phone. She’d known that.

“Sorry,” she said. She took a couple pictures and put her phone away. “You’re not wrong. But I’m used to it. I saw Julie’s house when Bobby lived in it, so…”

“Wait, you went to Bobby’s house?”

Flynn grimaced.

“I told you we met you guys,” she said, leading him back the way they’d come.

“Yeah, but… his _house_?” Alex stopped in his tracks. Flynn kept walking, but she cast an expectant glance over her shoulder. “Wait, there were those girls – was it in ’94? In the summer?”

“I don’t know,” Flynn said.

“Was this Carrie the Carrie who stayed at Bobby’s house? Were you Victoria?”

“You remember that?” Flynn asked.

“I remember that it happened,” Alex said as he caught back up to her. “Not what you two were like, though. I remember…”

The way he trailed off made Flynn uneasy.

“What?” she asked.

“The friend Victoria – you – told me about,” Alex said. “Your Luke. It’s Julie.”

“Alex, I’m pretty sure there’s not a single person in our little ghost and ghost-adjacent circle who likes girls who _hasn’t_ had some kind of crush on Julie, but I will forgive you for acting like it’s some kind of revelation since she’s not your type,” Flynn said. “Trust me. She’s a catch. But she’s also the safe option for me, and not a real crush. This is also the last time we are _ever_ talking about this, because we are both over our weird not-crushes, right? Right. You have Willie and I have… I have me.”

“Yeah, you know, that would be a lot more believable if you hadn’t hesitated,” Alex said. “But I’ll drop it. Probably not the most important thing to talk about right now. Mostly, I just hadn’t realised you were gay, too.”

“Alex, I wear rainbows, like, all the time. I know my fashion sense is fire, but did you really think it was all me being amazing and not me sending out a gay vibe? It’s super about the gay vibe.”

Alex laughed.

“Let’s get home before your totally-not-a-girlfriend makes Reggie cry,” he said.

“Wait, why would Julie – Oh my god, you _jerk_! Carrie is _not_ my girlfriend!”

“That’s what I said!” Alex cried, laughing, as Flynn chased him down the street toward the bus stop.


	2. Ghostly Visitors

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Julie attempts to make a new friend, and has a good time with some older ones.

Julie didn’t know exactly what was up with Flynn’s new ghost friend, but judging by the looks on Reggie and Luke’s faces during her tour of the studio, she wasn’t a shining beacon of positivity. There was more than one moment where Julie had to pause, able to tell the guys were bursting to say something, and then Luke or Reggie burst out with some kind of scolding or defence of Julie. Not exactly a glowing endorsement, but Julie trusted Flynn.

Flynn, who had apparently vanished and taken Alex with her. Julie excused herself from the developing squabble, sending a pleading glance at Willie, who had until this point been watching the tour with a bemused expression. Willie winked at her and hopped off the coffee table, heading over to hopefully defuse the situation.

Her phone call with Flynn cleared up almost nothing, but at least she knew where her best friend had gone. Flynn hadn’t been this reticent about her troubles in a while, though, and Julie worried even as she hung up.

“I see our new friend is really fitting in,” Bobby said, sprawled casually across the couch. Julie rolled her eyes at him.

“I see you’re not helping.”

“Should I be helping defend your honour or helping stop the fight? Though, now that I think about it probably the second one since Willie looks like he wishes he had popcorn more than he wants the fight to stop.”

Julie turned and sighed. The attempt at a stern furrow in Willie’s brow did nothing to offset his twitching lips or how half-hearted his attempts at patting Luke on the back were.

“You’re all the worst,” Julie said, marching over. “She’s stressed and she’s tired and nobody remembers her, and I’d probably be a little grumpy, too. And you!” She pointed at Willie. “I am _so_ disappointed in you.”

He winced.

“Ouch,” Reggie said. Julie glanced at him, exasperated. He hadn’t exactly done much to help, either.

“You didn’t hear –“ Luke protested.

“I didn’t need to, I saw your faces,” Julie said. “If I wanted overprotective boyfriends I’d date people the world could actually see. Can you give Carrie and me a minute? Please?”

Willie clapped Luke on the back and steered him away, ignoring the glances Luke sent over his shoulder at Julie. Reggie sheepishly passed Julie one of the notepads and pens they left lying around for Flynn to talk with Luke, Alex, and Bobby. She guessed they weren’t going to need them as much, at least once Carrie got back where she needed to be.

“Thank you,” Julie said. “I think Luke’s about to vibrate out of his skin, or whatever ghosts have.”

Reggie glanced over at the other ghosts and wrinkled his nose.

“Yeah, probably,” he said. “You want me to exercise my excellent boyfriend skills –“

“Over there, yeah,” Julie finished with a laugh. She squeezed his hand and then gently shoved him away. When she was satisfied none of the boys was going to vault over the coffee table and invade her conversation with Carrie any time soon, she turned back to where she was pretty sure the ghost girl was, holding out the pen and paper.

“Here,” Julie said. “I think it’s a good idea for us to talk one on one.”

After a minute, there was a tug on the pen and paper, and then Carrie was writing.

 _Boyfriends_? she asked.

“Uh…” Julie belatedly wondered if she was out to Carrie at all. She was Flynn’s… something, but was she close enough to Julie to know this stuff?

Oh, well, she was a ghost and she got to know all the ghost gossip.

“Yeah, Luke and Reggie and I are… kind of dating,” Julie said. She ducked her head, feeling embarrassed and not sure why. “They’re usually way better at making friends, I think everybody’s a little on edge today.”

 _What do you want_?

Julie frowned.

“I want to help,” she said. “You’re not supposed to be a ghost. Flynn said you were never born. So I want to help use the Instrument to fix things.”

_We can do it ourselves._

“Ok,” Julie said. “If you’re so good at it, how come you guys were in the past for multiple days? You should’ve come straight back.”

The pen tapped against the paper. Julie couldn’t tell if it was a thoughtful motion, or annoyed.

_Flynn may think she needs you. I don’t._

Julie frowned.

“You don’t need me, or you don’t think Flynn needs me?” she asked quietly. The first one she could live with. She didn’t know Carrie, and Carrie apparently didn’t like her. Whatever.

But she and Flynn had been a team forever, and the idea that Flynn didn’t lean on Julie just as much as Julie leaned on her…

It brought to mind the way Flynn told Julie so little about her own problems, and that was something Julie _really_ wasn’t ready to think about.

Carrie started to write something, then paused. A second later, she scribbled it out with a vengeance.

_I know what went wrong the first time, and who can fix it. You don’t have to mess up your nice little life just for me._

“It’s not messing anything up,” Julie protested. “You deserve help. And that’s… kind of what we do.”

 _You play good music with a couple ghosts,_ Carrie wrote, the pen dark and thick in what Julie hoped wasn’t anger. _Sometimes you’ve picked fights with creepy ghosts. It doesn’t make you a superhero, Julie, and I don’t need one._

She shoved the pad of paper into Julie’s hands. An instant later, Carrie tugged it away again.

 _Thank you for letting me stay,_ she wrote.

This time she let Julie keep the paper. The pen she laid on top of the piano, and then Julie wasn’t sure where Carrie got to.

Julie looked down at the paper in her hands, squinting at the scribbled-out words.

_Flynn doesn’t need you and you don’t need her._

Julie couldn’t tell whether that was meant to be inspiring or cruel. She wanted to believe it was the first one.

But Carrie was a hard ghost to read, and Julie was more than a little afraid it was the second.

That night, Reggie knocked on the inside of her door in what had become something of an inside joke. He and Luke stepped in together when Julie smiled at him.

“You are checking up on me,” Julie said.

“And we want to know what Flynn texted,” Reggie said. Luke elbowed him. “But yeah, mostly we’re worried.”

“Carrie said some stuff that was really out of line,” Luke said, sitting next to Julie on her bed. “I don’t know what you talked about, but…”

“Carrie’s fine,” Julie said. “Like I said, everybody had a long day, and Carrie and Flynn’s day was twenty-five years long.”

“Twenty-six!” Reggie put in. Luke and Julie both stared at him. He shrugged. “Alex said Flynn and Carrie came back to 1994.”

“Flynn just sent me some pictures,” Julie said. “Of a house. She wanted me to show them to Carrie when I got the chance, but I was at dinner, and then I can’t exactly find her…”

“We can do it,” Luke offered. Julie smiled at him, taking his hand and interlacing their fingers.

“Thank you,” she said. “Where did I…” She looked around, and had to let go of Luke in order to flop across her bed, grabbing her phone from the far edge where it was about to fall off. She handed it to Reggie when she sat back up.

“I’m on it, Julie,” Reggie said. He turned the phone on, then frowned.

“I think this is one of those touchscreens that works on heat,” he said. “So… you’re gonna have to unlock it.”

“Right,” Julie said. “They work on heat?”

Reggie shrugged, tapping the screen for emphasis. Nothing happened.

“I think so?” he said. “Nice lockscreen, though.”

Julie ducked her head, though if anybody understood her reasoning, it was Reggie. Her lockscreen was a picture of a song she and Luke had worked on; his messy, inconsistent handwriting was really growing on her.

“Wait, what is it?” Luke asked, trying to look over Julie’s shoulder. She lifted the phone up over her head, trying to type her password from memory.

“No!” she laughed.

“Oh, come on!” Luke made a grab for the phone, and Julie fell backwards out of his reach, giggling. “Jules, now I know it’s something about me, because _both_ of you are being weird. Reggie, what is it?”

Reggie shook his head frantically, pressing a finger to his lips.

“Good boyfriend code,” he said.

“I’m your boyfriend!” Luke shouted, collapsing half on top of Julie as she let her arm dangle over the edge of the bed. Julie shrieked and shoved him off.

“Just let me unlock this so you can show Carrie, ok?” she said, still laughing. “Dad’s going to give me that weird look after this.”

As if summoned, Julie heard a knock on her door.

“ _Mija_ , you all right?”

“Ghostly visitors,” Julie said.

“Yeah, we’re teaching you the true meaning of Christmas,” Luke said. Julie snorted.

“And are these ghostly visitors… behaving themselves?”

Julie cringed.

“Believe me, if they weren’t, I’d kick them out myself,” Julie said. “I just needed to let them borrow my phone. Sorry we got a little… silly.”

She made a face. Why was she so bad at word choice?

“As long as you’re not neglecting your homework for tomorrow,” her dad said pointedly. “And the boys let you work in _peace_ …”

“Yes, Ray!” Reggie called. Julie smiled at him fondly as she tossed him the newly unlocked phone.

“Go show Carrie, before it locks again,” she said. “Dad’s right, I should work on my homework.”

“Did you talk about how you’re getting things fixed?” Luke asked as he stood up. He wrapped an arm around Reggie’s shoulders.

“Kind of,” Julie said. “They won’t tell me yet what changed, which I think means it’s something really bad. But it’s Flynn! She doesn’t keep secrets from me, not so long as they’re things she’s ready to talk about at all. And she wouldn’t keep Carrie in limbo just because she was upset about something.”

“That does make sense,” Reggie said as he and Luke traded glances. Luke made a noise of agreement. They looked back at Julie in perfect unison.

“See you, Julie!” Reggie said brightly.

“Yeah, have fun with your math problems,” Luke teased. Julie rolled her eyes fondly as they poofed away.

They’d be able to talk everything out better tomorrow. Flynn would have slept, Carrie would have had time to come to terms with everything, and the guys would hopefully have calmed down about their first meeting with the new ghost.

This would be easy.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's her!!! My girl!!! Our hero!!! God I've missed writing Julie's pov. Hello, Julie, welcome back, sorry about the angst.  
> The hardest part of this entire fic is remembering that Bobby should be listed with any group ghost list, unless he is elsewhere doing something. As his role becomes more prominent he will be less of an afterthought I swear but also... also this is Julie and boyfriends time. It's been eighty four years. We deserve this.  
> Next time, Carrie finds out what ghosts do instead of sleeping. (Mostly, it's have feelings and make bad jokes. Maybe that's just these ghosts in particular.)


	3. Nice to Change

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Carrie makes enemies out of ghosts but also maybe makes friends out of them, too? It's unclear. She's still trying to figure out how she feels, everyone else's feelings are an unknowable mystery.

This was going to be awful.

Carrie sat on the edge of one of the armchairs, fully aware that she was sitting primly on the edge with her feet crossed like a little sister in a Regency novel but not really willing to relax enough to change that. Julie’s ghost friends, including Willie and her dad (it was Carrie’s _dad_ and he didn’t even know, Carrie wanted to scream), were clustered together on two-thirds of the couch as though they didn’t realise there was another third and a chair that sat empty. They were all staring at her. Reggie was wide-eyed, Willie and Alex looked like they were curious about her, Luke _clearly_ didn’t trust her…

And her dad’s face was impossible to read.

“So, you and Flynn,” Alex said suddenly.

“What about me and Flynn? Nothing’s going on! I don’t even like her!”

“You don’t like _Flynn_?” Luke squawked in outrage. Reggie patted him on the shoulder as Alex leaned over to whisper something to him. Bobby snickered as Luke’s face changed from anger to sheepishness.

“Sorry,” he said to Carrie, for no apparent reason.

“I just wanted to know how you ended up time travelling together in the first place,” Alex said.

“Oh,” Carrie said. She was pretty sure she was blushing, which was both mortifying and interesting. Wasn’t she dead? Blushes were blood, right? Did she have soul blood?

God, spend a few days with Flynn and suddenly Carrie’s internal monologue sounded like a junior high sleepover with Flynn and Julie.

“This thing followed me home,” Carrie said, pulling the Instrument out of her bag. The boys all stiffened, watching it warily. Carrie rolled her eyes.

“I can’t _do_ anything with it,” she said. “It’s super broken or something, you have to be around somebody with lots of magic for it to work. I’m… assuming none of you can do that kind of thing?”

To Carrie’s amusement, the guys all looked at each other like they were checking to make sure nobody had spontaneously developed magic powers.

“Yeah, we’re safe,” Carrie said, rolling her eyes.

“Good thing we’ve got Julie,” Reggie said. “She can get it working!”

“It doesn’t have to be Julie!” Carrie said, annoyed out of habit as much as anything.

“Well, she’s a better option than Caleb,” Willie said. He frowned. “How… how exactly did you get out? You ran out of there before he could do any magic.”

“Yeah, what happened with Caleb? I guess it explains why he’s been so creepy to Flynn, but how did you get back if he didn’t help?” Bobby sat up, eyes fixed on Carrie’s face. She looked away.

“What do you mean, he’s been creepy to Flynn?” she asked.

“We thought he’d ignore her,” Reggie said. “Because she’s not magic or a ghost. But he kept staring at her and trying to talk her into doing things for him when he met her.”

“Oh,” Carrie said. That was… probably Carrie’s fault, then. She swallowed.

“We… found somebody else who knew magic,” Carrie said. “She made sure you guys didn’t remember us very well.”

“But Willie remembers you, and Caleb,” Luke said. “Is it like, her powers were the reverse of Julie’s? They only work on lifers?”

Carrie really didn’t feel right talking about this when Julie wasn’t even there.

“Are you guys just going to talk at me all night?” she snapped. “Don’t ghosts sleep?”

“Uh,” Bobby said.

“Ehhhh…” Reggie and Alex chorused as they shared a glance. Luke cringed.

“That’s a no,” Willie told Carrie, as though she couldn’t have figured that out.

“Great,” Carrie said. “So a whole night where none of you are going to shut up. Just what I needed.”

“Hey,” Reggie said, frowning. Luke narrowed his eyes at Carrie, the mistrust coming off him in waves.

“At least we can help you plan,” Bobby said, in a voice almost like Carrie’s dad when he caught her being particularly mean. Carrie swallowed, hating the little guilty flicker in her stomach. It wasn’t _her_ dad, not yet. Not ever, right now. “Are you gonna track down the woman who helped you before, then?”

Carrie turned her head as far as she could, afraid of the guys seeing the tears that were threatening to come up, but it didn’t help. The first thing her eyes fell on was a notebook, sitting open on the keyboard with a few pieces of loose staff paper strewn around. It was one of Rose’s notebooks, one Carrie and Flynn had pooled their money to get her for the last birthday Rose had before things fell apart between the girls. Carrie hadn’t known if Rose ever used it, and now it looked like Julie was working on music Rose had started in that same book.

“She’s dead now,” Carrie said, tearing her eyes away. “I – Look, I know somebody else who has magic. It’ll be fine.”

“Who?” Alex pressed.

“Somebody I trust more than I trust Julie!” Carrie snapped, bolting out of the chair and glaring down at the cluster of ghosts. She clenched her fists, wishing they would just _stop pushing_. “Her life has always been easier without me. Her life is _perfect_. She doesn’t know me anymore, but trust me. She’d be happy to let me take care of this on my own if she did.”

“Julie’s not like that,” Reggie protested quietly.

“Oh, I’m sorry, you think you know her? I’ve known her since I was a toddler, and you’ve known her how long? Not even a full school year? You may think you know her because you’re her boyfriend, but let me tell you, girls don’t _tell_ their boyfriends anything.”

“Leave him alone,” Bobby said, standing up as well. Carrie froze.

His fists were clenched, too. He had the same stubborn set to his jaw that Carrie saw in the mirror sometimes. But he was standing in front of a whole band of people.

Carrie was getting so mad about the fact that nobody even realised she had Flynn in her corner, but even Flynn wasn’t here with her.

She looked past him, to where Luke had wrapped an arm around Reggie, looking as though he’d have leapt up if Bobby hadn’t been a second quicker. Alex’s shoulders were hunched – something she’d said had really upset him, too. Willie just looked dismayed.

She’d made a truce with Flynn, which would last all of five seconds if she upset Flynn’s friends. And her dad…

“To be fair,” Carrie said, relaxing her hands. “The fact that I’m a lesbian may have something to do with the way I never told my ex-boyfriend anything.”

Willie laughed. Bobby sat back down.

“Yeah, maybe,” Alex said with a small grin.

“Look,” Luke said. It was his turn to stand up, keeping his hand on Reggie’s shoulder, who leaned his head against Luke’s hip. “We get that you and Julie have some kind of past. But she really does want to help. Can’t that be enough?”

Carrie stared at him. He was the last person she’d have expected to extend this kind of olive branch. Everything about him screamed overprotective.

“Or we can keep yelling at each other, I guess if you enjoy that kind of thing,” Luke said, starting to turn away.

“You have a point,” Carrie said. “But… look, Julie’s not the only person in the world, all right? And I’ve had better luck getting help from… from the magic person I’m thinking of.”

“Are you ever gonna tell us who they are?” Luke asked.

Carrie grimaced.

“I kind of have to tell her first,” she admitted. “I… don’t think she knows.”

“Oh!” Reggie exclaimed, sitting bolt upright and flapping his hands around enthusiastically. Bobby and Alex leaned away from him with the ease of long friendship. Willie almost fell off the arm of the couch, but Alex grabbed his arm and hauled him up just in time.

“Bro, what is it?” Luke asked.

Carrie tried not to laugh at the fact that Luke really called his boyfriend bro. (Co-boyfriend? Were they dating each other or just Julie, because they gave off a dating vibe but also so did half of these guys with each other, including Carrie’s own dad, and _ew_.)

Reggie clapped his hands over his mouth, still looking thrilled.

“I had a thought,” he said through a gap in his fingers.

Carrie couldn’t resist a tiny smile. It was cute that he got excited about it. Nick was like that about Carrie’s shows; it was one of the things that made her think maybe she could try dating a guy.

“Look, you’ll find out,” Carrie said. “And… yeah, from that reaction, he totally already knows. So I guess it depends on how long _you_ can keep your mouth shut.”

“I can keep a secret,” Reggie said. Luke snorted, though he clearly thought he was hiding it.

“You can keep secrets because we don’t ask, because we know if we ask you, you’ll tell us,” Alex said. “Not really the same thing.”

“Just for that, I’m not gonna tell you who I think it is,” Reggie said, sniffing dramatically and lifting his chin. Carrie rolled her eyes and approached the keyboard. She was curious what Julie had been working on.

It wasn’t a song she remembered Rose working on, which made sense if she’d started using the notebook after Carrie stopped hanging out with the Molinas. There were three different sets of handwriting here, though, even in the pages themselves. Rose, Carrie recognised. Julie’s perfect, beautiful scrawl she’d know anywhere. And that blocky, half-caps printing that was almost impossible to read…

Julie was finishing Rose’s music with one of her ghost friends. One of her ghost friends felt so comfortable, he’d even changed some of Rose’s original lyrics.

“Who wrote this?” Carrie said. She brandished the journal over her head, trying to hide the way her hand wanted to shake. This shouldn’t bother her. She cut _Julie_ out. This was what she wanted.

“Me, why?” Luke said, turning to lay across the empty part of the couch like it was no big deal. He propped one leg on Reggie’s lap and casually shoved his other foot behind Reggie’s back.

“This is Rose’s,” Carrie said. “This – you didn’t even _know_ her!”

Luke glanced frantically at the others, but their gazes were nervously transfixed on the book in Carrie’s hand. Luke sat up slowly, pulling his legs free and setting his feet on the floor.

“Julie asked me to,” he said. “We all help her with it, sometimes. Well, not Willie.”

“Yeah, I’m the backup dancer,” Willie offered with a grin.

“You never even met Rose,” Carrie repeated, well aware her brain was stuck on that single fact but unable to press into why it bothered her.

“It’s not Flynn’s genre of music,” Luke said. “Ray and Carlos aren’t musicians. Who else was she going to ask?”

“I – She could –“

She couldn’t have asked Carrie, and Carrie knew it. Carrie had made sure of it, with everything she’d said to Julie after Rose died. Carrie stomped over and shoved the notebook into Luke’s chest. He fell back against the couch with a quiet “oof.”

“Never mind,” Carrie said. “Can we – do ghosts do _anything_?”

“A lot of things, but I get the feeling most of them aren’t what you’re looking for,” Willie said quietly.

“Sometimes I go stand in the shower,” Reggie offered.

Carrie nearly snapped at him, but that actually sounded really nice.

“Can I… Do ghosts wear the same clothes all the time?” Carrie asked. She was _not_ asking a group of ghosts that included her dad if she could get naked.

Willie laughed.

“No, you can change clothes,” he said. “I’d offer to borrow something from Julie for you but I have a feeling that would make it worse.”

“I… It might be nice to change,” Carrie admitted. God, it was like she couldn’t even hold a grudge now. She hated being a ghost.

Willie glanced at the others and gave them a tiny shrug before disappearing. Reggie shot up from the couch, forcing Carrie to take a step back.

“I’ll show you where the bathroom is,” he said eagerly.

“I know where it is,” Carrie said, but he didn’t notice as he crossed the small space and pushed open the bathroom door, chattering away. Willie appeared a few seconds later with a bundle of clothes. They were pink, Carrie noticed, a colour Julie rarely wore. She wondered whose idea that was.

“Shout if you need anything!” Reggie said as Carrie took the clothes and shut the door. She turned the water on to let it get warm, set the clothes on the counter, sat down on the toilet lid, and cried.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This was such a journey to write. Carrie is really out here trying to process so much at once. None of the guys know how to deal with an emotionally volatile teenage girl at the best of times, let alone one whose main coping mechanism is being mean.  
> The bit about Rose's music was inspired by PJO_Connoisseur, who is a dear friend in general and also my personal hero for that idea. I really said "what's something Carrie could look at to give her emotions" and she comes out with this beautiful seed of angst, freshly watered. Also, it feels very weird crediting her AO3 name because that's the place I interact with her the least. That matters not at all, it just amuses me.  
> Next time, Carrie sees some old friends. Julie and Flynn touch base in person. Nick finally gets to be both present and plot-relevant!


	4. People Algebra

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Relationships are confusing at the best of times. When an arbitrary threshold of love determines who remembers you after your pseudo-death... they get even worse.

Somehow – well, Flynn knew exactly how, it was all the time travel giving her the world’s worst vacation – Flynn had forgotten about school.

“Flynn, I’m starting to worry about you,” her mom said over breakfast, having had to drag Flynn out of bed and remind her to get ready for school. She passed Flynn her homework, which Flynn didn’t even remember doing.

“I’m sorry,” Flynn said.

“You know we love Julie, and I don’t want to tell you to stop going over there or helping with her band,” her mom continued. Flynn shrank in her chair a little, anticipating the lecture. “But we’ve barely seen you, even after we told you to spend more time at home. And you keep forgetting things! Where is your mind these days, Flynn?”

“I’m sorry,” Flynn said. “Look, I promise, I’m working on it. It’s been… With Nick getting sick, and Julie’s band has been having some problems, and I’ve been trying to help them.”

“You don’t have to solve all the world’s problems, Flynn, and you certainly don’t have to destroy yourself to do it,” her dad said sternly, sitting down at the table with his coffee. “Family night this Saturday, your aunts and your cousins are coming over, and you’re not getting out of it. I don’t care if Julie’s band gets hired to play at some… big name music festival, whatever you’re all going to now. You’re taking a break, ok?”

“Julie’s welcome to come over,” Flynn’s mom added. It was the usual invitation for those nights, but Julie hadn’t come since before Rose got sick. “Or that new friend of yours, Nick?”

The day Flynn invited a boy over when her aunties were there, too, was probably the day she announced she was a lesbian, out of a desperation to avoid the gossip. She did not want that day to be Saturday.

“I’ll ask,” she said. “And I’ll be there.”

Her parents seemed pleased. Flynn just hoped she didn’t have any more unplanned time travel in her future.

School offered very little relief. Not really a surprise, school was kind of the worst not counting music class, but still. Flynn had hoped it would be better without her _parents_ being _concerned_ all over her.

Too bad Carrie showed up at Flynn’s locker.

“You are really getting the hang of the ghost teleportation thing,” Flynn said. “Also, what are you doing?”

“I want to know what we’re doing,” Carrie said bluntly. “You didn’t tell my dad who I was.”

“Wait, did you?”

“No,” Carrie said. She frowned. “I don’t… I don’t want him to know. He doesn’t…”

“Yeah,” Flynn said. “I don’t want any of them to know. It would hurt them.”

“So we do it ourselves,” Carrie said. “I mean, we can just go back and make sure he doesn’t get a hot dog with the others, and it’ll be fine!”

“We can’t just show up at the Orpheum!” Flynn said. “We need a plan. And we need Julie.”

“We do not _need_ Julie,” Carrie scoffed.

“Look, I know you still don’t like her, but she has magic. Neither of us want to go to Caleb, right?”

“Flynn, look,” Carrie said, looking unusually serious.

“Carrie?”

Flynn and Carrie turned to see Nick staring at them quizzically.

“Nick?” Carrie asked. “You can see me.”

“You can remember her?” Flynn said, which was the way more pressing question because Nick seeing ghosts wasn’t _new_ anymore, Carrie, god. Flynn had even told her about it.

Nick, having been there for a lot of time travel-related screaming, took a step back.

“So what did you do?” he asked.

“Why do you think _we_ did anything?” Carrie said defensively.

“Carrie, we’re talking to each other, of course it’s something we did,” Flynn said. “Nick. You remember Carrie.”

“Yeah,” Nick said. “Didn’t we just discuss that? Did you erase Carrie or something?”

“My dad died with the rest of Julie’s band,” Carrie said flatly.

“Your dad was in Julie’s band?”

Flynn and Carrie looked at each other. Somehow, Flynn hadn’t realised that had never come up.

“It’s a long story,” Carrie said. “And technically no, except now yes? I guess? Because he’s with the others…”

“We so don’t have time for this,” Flynn said. She knew exactly how deep the rabbit hole of alternate timelines could go, and they were not going through that again so long as nobody had weird dreams. Please, please let nobody have weird dreams. Flynn searched her brain, trying to remember what Ava had said about Julie and Reggie and Willie remembering when the first timeline change happened. Flynn and Carrie remembered because they changed it. But Nick…

“Oh, my god,” Flynn said. “People remember their loved ones when the timeline changes.”

“Uh,” Carrie said. Nick looked alarmed and shuffled back another half-step.

“I am pretty sure platonic love counts, this is no time for weird ex-partner nonsense,” Flynn said. “You two can deal with that later. What this means is we finally have somebody else who _knows_ Carrie. And I don’t have to be the only one to deal with her!”

“Hey,” Carrie said, surprisingly mildly. Nick ducked his head with a soft laugh.

“So you can fix it, right?” he asked.

“Yeah,” Flynn said, glancing at Carrie. “I mean, we know what happened, and when it happened, and how to get back. We just have to figure out how we’re going to do it. There’s already me and Julie and Reggie and Willie back there. And Caleb. And Ava. And then Caleb and Ava and Reggie and probably Willie again. And the rest of Sunset Curve. And I don’t actually know how it works, but maybe adult Luke and Alex, too? Because that whole alternate timeline did happen to Julie and the guys here. I am _freaking_ out, I think, and it’s kind of like I drank a bunch of soda but I haven’t even had soda in forever and I honestly think that would calm me down at this point!”

“Breathe,” Nick advised, patting Flynn on the back.

“If people who love me remember me…” Carrie said slowly.

“Your dad doesn’t because he died before you existed,” Flynn said quickly. “I’m pretty sure. Alex and Luke didn’t remember the dead versions of each other, so I think switching from ghost to lifer or back does something to your memories of other timelines.”

“Ok,” Carrie said. “What about my grandparents?”

Flynn hadn’t thought of that.

“I mean, maybe they won’t notice?” she said, knowing that sounded terrible. “They’re not in your life every day.”

“Yeah,” Carrie said. “You’re probably right.”

Nick and Flynn exchanged glances, and Flynn momentarily stepped outside of the situation to wonder at the fact that she was actually worried about Carrie Wilson’s emotional state.

“I know they remember you, though,” Nick said. “And you and Flynn and Julie can get it fixed fast. They won’t have time to worry. That’s good, right?”

Carrie lifted her chin, covering up her nerves with a haughty glance down her nose at Flynn.

“Well,” she said. “At least I know my group will remember me, then. Somebody should tell _them_ not to worry.”

That was probably a good point.

“I think I saw Kayla down the hall,” Nick offered. Flynn shut her locker, silently resigned to going along with whatever Carrie’s plan was. What exactly did you say, in this situation, when you didn’t even have ghosts as a baseline example of weirdness to fall back on?

But Kayla seemed perfectly ok as they approached. She was talking to one of the other girls from Dirty Candi, as well as a girl Flynn knew for a fact hated Carrie as much as Flynn had.

“But…” Carrie halted, looking lost. “Kayla _hates_ Emma. Emma did that awful review of our first show in the school newspaper and Kayla kicked her in dance class on purpose. For the group! For – for me.”

Flynn watched Kayla, hoping that maybe she would kick Emma again or something, but she just laughed at something Emma said and closed her locker.

“I was thinking,” Kayla said as she walked past, not even glancing at Flynn or Nick and certainly unaware of Carrie. “Ems, did you still want me in that new piece you’re choreographing?”

“No!” Carrie shrieked. “No, you don’t have time for that, you have _my_ rehearsals, you have – you have me.”

“Carrie,” Flynn said softly.

“Don’t talk to me right now, Flynn,” Carrie said. “Just – I thought. I thought that.”

“You thought if anybody in the world had picked you, it was the girls from Dirty Candi,” Flynn said. When Carrie stared at her in surprise, Flynn shrugged.

“Look, it’s nauseating, but sometimes I do listen when you talk.”

“We don’t know all the rules, Carrie,” Nick said quietly. “And look, you _know_ … Carrie, you know you’re not always nice even to people you like. But we can get things back to normal, and you can make sure Kayla won’t forget you again. I’m here. Right?”

Carrie whipped around to face him, an ugly sneer on her tear-stained face. Nick just stared at her with his shoulders slumped, like he knew exactly the kind of thing she was about to say and was ready to take it.

“Why are you here?” Carrie said, and to Flynn’s surprise it came out quietly. Curiously. For once, it wasn’t a barb; Carrie genuinely wanted to know.

“I always wanted to be your friend,” Nick said. “I’m kind of stubborn about that stuff.”

“No kidding,” Flynn muttered, because this had been way too serious for way too long. Nick grinned crookedly at her, and even Carrie cracked a smile.

“Hey, Flynn?”

Flynn turned to see Julie, who was running one hand nervously up and down the spiral of one of her notebooks.

“Jules,” Flynn said. They hadn’t gotten the chance to talk, really, and she moved closer with relief.

“Right, leave me for Julie again,” Carrie muttered. Flynn turned around guiltily, but Carrie just shrugged ruefully at her.

“I get it,” she admitted. Her eyes moved past Flynn’s shoulder, following the path Kayla had taken. “Just this once, I get it.”

Flynn smiled shakily at her, then turned back to Julie.

“Sorry,” Flynn said. “About everything. All of this. I’ve been weird, and I’ve kept things from you, and it’s really not fair. You’re my best friend.”

A truly obscene amount of tension lifted from Julie with those simple words.

“I know you’ve had a lot going on,” she said. “Is everything ok?”

“Nick remembers Carrie,” Flynn said. “Kayla doesn’t.”

“Nick? My _ex-boyfriend_ Nick?”

“Your what now?” Flynn’s brain ceased to function. Julie had, in this universe, dated a perfectly nice living boy and she’d _still_ decided to opt for a couple dead disaster bisexuals?

Not that the disaster bisexual part was a problem, it complemented Julie’s own energy perfectly, but the dead thing. That was weird, and would continue to be.

“I take it that didn’t happen?” Julie said.

“Well, he asked you out, when he… oh. That was when he broke up with Carrie, which never had to happen here, so he probably asked you out before you met the band.” Flynn paused to consider this new information, piecing the timeline together. “Please tell me you didn’t break up with him to go date some ghosts.”

“No, he broke up with me,” Julie said, which really didn’t help Flynn compute, like, anything. Who in their right, girl-loving mind would break up with Julie? And surely Nick liked girls, because she could not imagine somebody picking Carrie to be an attempt at straightness the way Carrie had picked Nick.

Flynn felt like she was suddenly trying to do people algebra.

“Flynn, I didn’t actually want to talk about my ex-boyfriend,” Julie said.

“Yeah, sorry, right,” Flynn said. “It’s a very weird revelation for me, but I guess with time and some soda I can work this out on my own. What _do_ you want to talk about, Jules?”

“I want to help,” Julie said. “And I know Carrie doesn’t like me or trust me, but… she trusts you, and you’re my friend. I won’t let you pretend this is all yours to deal with alone.”

“We couldn’t even if I wanted to,” Flynn teased. “I don’t have magic powers, remember?”

Julie gave her a weird look.

“You know, this morning Reggie said –“ she glanced over at Nick and Carrie and bit her lip. “Never mind. Sorry. The guys were telling me about last night with Carrie, but I probably shouldn’t say that stuff if she’s not ready.”

“You will be sitting on those things forever, then, Carrie doesn’t talk about her emotions unless her emotion is angry,” Flynn said. Though, to be fair, ‘angry’ had been netting Carrie a lot more breakthroughs than Flynn might have expected a week ago.

“Sounds like somebody I know,” Julie said.

Flynn gasped, playfully smacking at the notebooks in Julie’s arms.

“You take that back!” she exclaimed.

“Nope,” Julie said gleefully. “Except _you_ just like to complain about petty things. So I’m not even sure if that counts as angry.”

“Well, now _you’re_ just being petty, so who’s the real winner here?”

“Nick, probably,” Julie said.

“Ok, yeah,” Flynn had to concede. “Especially now that you’ve stopped calling him Nickypoo.”

“That was one time!” Julie shrieked, laughing. The bell rang, and the two girls smiled at each other.

“We should get to class,” Flynn said. “If you hear a ghostly wail, that’s just Carrie trying to sing.”

“I’m right here,” Carrie said irritably as she, Flynn, Julie, and Nick all headed for the music classroom.

"Carrie," Flynn said with a tone of mock-disappointment. "That's why I said it."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm so sorry to everybody who believes in Dirty Candi as ride-or-die friends, it was very important to Carrie's arc. This is how her friendship hits rock bottom! All future Carrie and Kayla stuff is going to be vastly improved!  
> You know, once Kayla can see and remember Carrie.  
> Nick, dating and then breaking up with Julie? More on that later, but there's a reason he talks a lot about making friends in this chapter. Boy loves his friends. I know it seems wild that anybody could break up with Julie when they don't even have weird ghost stuff standing in the way, but he and Julie are still friends and really. Really don't we all just want to keep important people in our lives, regardless of what form that takes?  
> Next time: The guys discover that they once flirted with Julie's mom. Also, Julie finds out some stuff about her mom, too.


	5. Inside Joke

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Some truths about magic, and Julie's mom, and magic again. Everybody is suffering a little bit but it might be the easiest suffering they've had in a long time.

Julie stopped at her house long enough to collect the guys, then they all went over to Flynn’s. She, Flynn, and Nick had decided that Flynn’s parents would only make things harder if they held their meetings in the studio as often as they had. Julie wasn’t sure what Carrie had thought of it, but from the way Nick and Flynn had reacted to her, she wasn’t thrilled with the idea.

It was probably something to do with the way Carrie had been about staying at Julie’s. Julie thought maybe it was better not to ask.

“Hey, Nick,” Willie said, trading a quick fist-bump routine with Nick as the ghosts filed in through Flynn’s door. (Literally through, there was no way Julie was dealing with the weird reaction she’d get if one of Flynn’s parents came home to see her holding the door open for nothing. One ghost was fine, but a whole parade? No.) Bobby also greeted him with a much less elaborate fist-bump, which for some reason made Nick stare at him like he’d never seen Bobby before in his life.

“Dude! You’re gonna help?” Reggie said excitedly, drawing Nick’s attention away from Bobby. Julie frowned as Bobby stepped back, his body language screaming “fade into the background.” He was the quieter one of the group, and sometimes she wasn’t sure whether that was on purpose.

“Hey,” Nick said, waving at the others. Julie pretended she did not see the palpable waves of awkward between him and Luke. Luke wasn’t _jealous_ of Nick – if that had lasted long, she would have wasted no time calling him on it – but Reggie had said he was pretty sure Luke hadn’t forgiven Nick for not thinking Julie was the greatest girlfriend ever. Embarrassing, but also… kind of flattering.

(For Reggie’s part, he’d said that as long as Nick knew Julie was awesome he was perfectly happy it was just the three of them. That had also been one of the weirder heart-warming moments Julie had experienced.)

“Yes, we’re all here, Nick’s here, it’s great,” Flynn said, planting one hand on Julie’s back and one on Reggie’s and shoving them towards her room. “Let’s hurry it along, please? It’s no fun complaining about Carrie when nobody knows who I’m talking about.”

“So, uh… Flynn said we dated here?” Nick said to Julie as they gathered in Flynn’s room. Luke collapsed onto the beanbag chair in the corner, reaching for Reggie, who tugged Julie down before she could answer. She twisted around to give Luke a stern look, but he didn’t seem to notice, too preoccupied with reaching around Reggie and Julie and grabbing each of their hands.

“Yeah,” Julie said to Nick, tilting her head to let Reggie rest his chin on her shoulder. They were all going to have numb legs in about three seconds – don’t ask her why ghosts with no real blood could lose circulation, she was pretty sure the only ghost rule was “there are no rules” – but it was nice in the moment. “You dated Carrie? And that’s why you remember her.”

Nick shrugged, glancing over at an empty space by the door that must have been Carrie.

“She’s a lot of fun, when she lets her guard down,” he said, sitting cross-legged on Flynn’s floor.

Willie hopped up on Flynn’s vanity, and Alex sat on the stool, nestled between his boyfriend’s legs. Bobby sat by Nick, gazing around curiously at the room. Flynn, of course, held court from her own bed. Julie watched her best friend’s eyes track somebody invisible, drifting around the room, and wondered how long, exactly, it had been since Carrie had been in Flynn’s room.

A few seconds later, Flynn made a face, somewhere between surprise and confusion.

“Are you sure?” she asked.

“She’s got a point, we don’t even shut up about things we _do_ know,” Luke said a few seconds later. Julie giggled.

“Speak for yourself,” Bobby muttered.

“Hey, Nick, you’re closest, you wanna just…” Luke pantomimed licking his finger and sticking it out to the side. Julie groaned.

“Luke…” she said.

“You said no wet willies in your household,” Reggie pointed out.

“I _will_ go sit with Flynn,” Julie threatened. Both boys scrambled to pull her a little closer, and she laughed.

“At least he got over the novelty of trying to make me do it,” Willie muttered. Julie shuddered. That had been a dark time in the short history of Julie and the Phantoms.

“I thought it was funny,” Luke muttered.

“Can we focus?” Flynn said. “There’s kind of… important things to talk about? What’s with all the spit, anyway?”

“Luke thinks it’s an inside joke,” Bobby said.

“It _is_ an inside joke,” Luke protested.

“It’s gross,” Flynn said. “Moving on. Julie. Uh, this is going to sound really weird and maybe awful but I don’t know, maybe it’ll be like closure or something? I hope?”

“Flynn,” Julie prompted gently.

“The reason we made it home without Caleb’s help,” Flynn said slowly.

“What?” Reggie gasped, jumping. Luke flailed slightly as Alex and Bobby gasped.

"Oh, wow," Willie laughed.

Flynn lowered her head into her hands as Julie looked around her in confusion.

“Carrie,” she said. “Carrie. You absolute – she can’t hear you, Carrie. Blurting it out only makes the reveal take _longer_.”

Julie clapped a hand over her mouth, trying not to laugh as she realised what had happened. There was another thing she knew about Carrie, at least: she was impatient.

“Your mom helped us get home,” Flynn said. “She did the magic that let us use the Instrument, and it was a sort of memory wipe. That’s why the guys except Willie forgot what we looked like.”

Julie didn’t jump or flail or gasp; her body wanted to do the opposite, breathe out and just keep breathing out like she was suddenly so heavy and tired. Julie was magic. Her mom had been magic.

But Julie had only known after her mom was long gone.

“Jules?” Flynn asked quietly, slipping off the bed and reaching for her. Julie barely noticed her boyfriends releasing their arms from her until she was falling into Flynn’s grip.

“Why wouldn’t she tell me?” Julie asked.

“I don’t know,” Flynn said. “I’m sorry.”

“Wait, Julie, your mom was that cute girl who came to my house,” Bobby said. Julie stared at him, hoping desperately the use of the word “cute” was just some straight boy thing that Sunset Curve hadn’t managed to get out of him. By the horrified look on his face, though, she didn’t have much faith in her hope.

“Carrie!” Flynn exclaimed, though she was laughing.

“What did she say?” Julie asked.

“She said Bobby definitely flirted with your mom,” Flynn said.

Julie laughed nervously.

“Your friend’s got a really… _weird_ sense of humour, Flynn,” Julie said through a broad smile and gritted teeth

“Jules, Carrie doesn’t have a sense of humour.” Flynn looked altogether too amused by this part of the conversation, though she did also seem the proper level of mortified. She kept looking between Julie, Bobby, and Carrie like she was watching a train wreck.

“Wait, if that girl was your mom, then…” Reggie gasped loudly.

“Dude,” Luke said. “Please stop talking.”

Julie scooted a little further away from the beanbag.

“Please tell me that gasp doesn’t mean what I think it means,” Julie said.

“Uh,” Reggie said, which quickly turned into a chorus of “ehhhh” from him, Luke, and Bobby.

“Have any of you _not_ flirted with my mother?” Julie proclaimed loudly.

Alex raised his hand.

“Not my type,” he said helpfully.

"It wasn't really flirting," Reggie said. "I mean, I did say she was beautiful, but I wasn't trying to get anywhere..."

"Bro, I am begging you to stop trying to fix this," Luke said fervently.

Julie groaned and flopped backwards onto the ground. She believed what Reggie was trying to say, but also she could not handle the way he was trying to say it.

“Flynn, please tell me you have something to distract me from this, because I can't live with this in my head for the rest of the day,” she announced, flinging an arm dramatically across her eyes. Nick patted her sympathetically on the elbow.

“At least you’re not suffering alone,” he offered. Julie moved her arm to stare at him, confused – did he mean Reggie and Luke and Bobby were suffering with this knowledge? Because that really wasn’t the same at all. Flynn started talking again before Julie could ask, though.

“She said some stuff about how magic works, too, like it’s… something important to you? You give something power and it gives it back to you, is the way she explained it. Her whole magic thing only worked on lifers because her magic was about… about taking chances. Opportunities.”

“Living life to the fullest?” Willie offered softly. Julie sat up, and he smiled at her gently.

Julie realised she knew very little about Willie’s time spent alive. Someday she should fix that, if he’d let her.

“Yeah,” Flynn said. She looked at Julie nervously. “She said your magic probably works on ghosts because… death is important to you.”

“’And I use the pain,’” Julie quoted softly. Maybe she hadn’t known about her magic but… maybe her mother had known something about how it would come out of Julie, deep down. Maybe her mother had wanted to give her an outlet for all that death.

“Thank you, Flynn,” Julie said. “For telling me.”

“You’re ok?” Flynn said softly. Julie pressed her forehead to Flynn’s.

“I think so,” she said. After a few seconds, she pulled away and looked around the room. “But that still leaves us with no magic, if Carrie really won’t let me help.”

Everyone’s heads turned toward the window; Carrie must have spoken.

“What do you mean?” Nick asked. Reggie made a little squeaking noise and pointed to Flynn. Julie’s eyes widened, remembering what he’d confided in her that morning.

_I think maybe Flynn has magic, and only Carrie knows about it. And, uh, maybe don’t tell the others? They think I can’t keep a secret._

Julie had tactfully refrained from pointing out that telling her was the very definition of not keeping a secret, and she’d barely avoided saying anything that morning. She’d almost managed to forget, as the whole day passed and there wasn’t a sign that Carrie had said anything of the kind. But now…

“Wait, me?” Flynn said. “Carrie, are you high?”

“Sweet,” Nick murmured, grinning. Everyone else was silent as Carrie explained.

“What’s she saying?” Julie asked Bobby.

“When they were at the Hollywood Ghost Club, Carrie and Flynn held hands, and then Carrie started to see ghosts,” Bobby whispered. A flash of surprise crossed his face. “Carrie let go and she couldn’t see them anymore, so she knows it’s Flynn.”

“But… But I spent all that time without seeing any ghosts,” Flynn protested. “I’m not – I’m the moral support! I’m the manager! I’m not special.”

“Hey,” Reggie said loudly. “Why do you only say you’re awesome when nobody else said it first? Own it.”

Flynn rolled her eyes.

“I am amazing,” she said, though it sounded more like a standard throwaway line than something she believed. Julie frowned. Reggie was on to something. “I’m just an amazing, normal person.”

“Wait, you’ve been normal all along? I can’t believe you lied to me for this long,” Bobby teased. Flynn drew in a breath and stared at the floor, clearly rethinking a lot of things.

“You could see Luke, Alex, and Bobby when you came back,” Julie said. “And – and there have been a couple times, before, when you responded to things they said. I think maybe Carrie’s right.”

“So what’s my magic, then? All we know is I can see you guys, and I made Carrie see ghosts. I don’t think death is my thing, Jules, like no offense to you, but it’s not exactly a major factor in my life.”

“You saw your friends,” Alex spoke up. “And the friends of your friends. And you helped your friend see them.”

“Carrie is not –“ Flynn cut herself off.

“That does sound like you,” Julie offered.

“Ok,” Flynn said. “I still say we should let Julie help, Carrie. She actually knows some of this stuff. I didn’t even know I was doing any of it.”

There was a pause.

“What did she say?” Julie asked Bobby again.

“She said she’ll think about it,” Bobby said.

Julie could live with that. It was Carrie’s life on the line, not hers, and besides… there was a lot to think about today.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Almost forgot about Bobby this chapter. Like, ok, that's the entire premise, but go off on an au of your au of your au I guess. Caught it quickly, but wow I sure forgot to give him a place to sit at first.  
> All the magic secrets are out in the open! Also, the mom flirting thing. I do not want it to be super weird - Luke probably just talked to Rose about music a bit like he does, and Reggie did his standard cute-girl bit but pretty much forgot about it (and it was quick enough Carrie never saw it, if you remember from the last big fic) - but also I don't think Reggie, upon realising he'd had any sort of contact with Julie's mom, wouldn't immediately gasp dramatically and make it ten times weirder by not explaining well. Disaster boy strikes again.  
> Also I'm having so much fun playing with point of view. Julie not seeing Carrie... the fact that Reggie guesses about Flynn's magic and then tells Julie but we never know because this is the first time I've been in one of their heads since it happened... i really enjoy this kind of thing, I don't know if you've noticed.  
> Next time, life (or... afterlife) goes on for Julie and the Phantoms, and since Carrie isn't in a rush right now she, Flynn, and Nick take the time to see the show. Carrie gets 600 percent gayer.


	6. Tell Me What You Want

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Carrie and Flynn share a couple of moments, and Nick comes out.

Flynn pulled Carrie aside when everybody else left.

“So if we’re going to do this, just you and me,” she said. “Which is apparently your plan, and probably would limit the amount of people having memory problems in the future, because _that’s_ going to be fun to deal with if it happens again.”

Carrie had been trying not to think about that. Just because Flynn had said she knew how to fix it didn’t mean she wanted to deal with memories of an extra timeline coming to her. What would that even be like, in a timeline where she didn’t exist?

God, everything Flynn had told her about the time travel stuff she’d been doing was absolutely insane. Carrie didn’t know how she dealt with it.

“Flynn, you didn’t ask me a question,” Carrie prompted after a moment.

“God, sorry,” Flynn said. “Look, the longer we stay here the more likely it is the truth comes out about your dad, but I don’t really think I can rush the whole magic thing.”

“It’s ok,” Carrie said. “Not like I’m missing any appointments right now. Or, you know, like anybody would miss me.”

Flynn frowned at her.

“I’ll talk to Julie, see if she can help me,” Flynn said. “I know it doesn’t matter what magic I do, but… I still need to be able to do it on command, right?”

“You’re scared,” Carrie realised.

Flynn glared at her.

“That’s hilarious coming from you,” she snapped. “I know why I didn’t tell the others about Bobby, but you don’t care about upsetting Julie. You’re scared, too.”

“I have a reason to be,” Carrie said. “You’re scared of yourself.”

“I’m not,” Flynn said.

“You don’t ever take what you want, do you?” Carrie said. “You let Julie start a band without you. You’ve never dated anybody, you have one friend and all of her friends, and now I tell you that you have magic powers and your response is ‘ok but probably not’? What is _wrong_ with you?”

“So I should be more like you?” Flynn asked. “Because it doesn’t look like you actually got any of what you wanted when you tried for it. You have an amateur music career, you’ve only dated a guy you’re not interested in who broke up with you, and we both saw what happened with your friends. Taking things that you want just leaves you with less than you had in the first place.”

Carrie clenched her fists, biting back the instinctual insults.

“Well, I need you to take this seriously,” she said instead. “Because I’m not trusting this to Julie. I can’t.”

“What is your problem with her?” Flynn burst out. “You’re fine with me!”

“You’re different,” Carrie said. “It doesn’t matter, ok? Just… I’m ok with waiting, if I know that you’re taking this seriously.”

Flynn studied Carrie’s face like it was a math problem.

“Julie and the Phantoms have a show Friday,” she said. “And Saturday I have… family night.” Flynn muttered that last part as though Carrie couldn’t possibly remember the family nights from when they were kids.

“Ok…” Carrie said slowly, not sure what Flynn was saying.

“Julie will be busy rehearsing, but I’ll work with her Saturday morning,” Flynn said. “Hopefully we can get you home Sunday. Is that ok, or are you going to insult me again?”

“Not you,” Carrie said. “Though I am surprised Julie actually rehearses, I thought she just liked to show up places and upstage people.”

Flynn rolled her eyes.

“Look, when you get kicked out of the music program because there’s no system in place to help you with grief, I’ll back your totally against-the-rules performance too, ok? Until then, I think you can let it go.”

Carrie doubted it, but she could wait for another moment to bring it up again.

“That’s just a couple days,” Carrie said. “We can do that.”

“Yeah,” Flynn said. “Now go away, I doubt you’re planning to stick around for dinner.”

“God no,” Carrie said.

Thursday and Friday passed surprisingly quickly. Carrie was expecting a neverending agony of well-meaning but socially inept teenagers trying to engage her in conversation, but the boys gave her a pleasantly wide berth whenever she started to glare at them. In return, she relaxed her guard a little. They hadn’t been _terrible_ in the past; it wasn’t their fault they’d gotten stuck in Julie’s band.

She avoided her dad, though. She’d messed with him enough already.

Willie was the easiest to be around, maybe because Carrie hadn’t associated him with Julie’s band before she met him. She found herself telling him tiny pieces of her life, out of context stories or details of how she’d made Dirty Candi.

“You’re gonna come to the show, right?” Willie asked her Friday afternoon as they sat outside the studio, trading stories of concerts they’d seen while Julie and the Phantoms were doing some last-minute prep.

“I…” Carrie grimaced. She couldn’t even say she didn’t like Julie’s music. Julie was good. Her band was good. It was, underneath it all, nice to hear Julie play again.

“Sure,” she said.

“Oh, good,” Willie said. “I was afraid I’d have to break out the big guns to convince you.”

“The big guns?” Carrie said sceptically.

“Yeah,” Willie said. “You know, telling you Flynn’s gonna be there.”

Carrie gaped at him as he stood up. The studio doors opened, and Julie hurried up the steps, nearly walking through Carrie.

“I don’t – why would that matter?” she said finally. Willie raised his eyebrows, looking amused.

“Does it matter?” he asked, like a complete jerk.

Carrie wasn’t sure what offended her more, the question or the fact that she didn’t know how to answer.

“Hey, Carrie! Are you coming to the show?” Reggie looked genuinely excited to see her, which was still so weird. He was dating _Julie_ , he wasn’t supposed to like Carrie.

“Yes,” Carrie sighed. “Shouldn’t you be heading out, too? Do ghosts just not have call times?”

“It’s not like we need to set up,” Luke pointed out. “We just… poof all our stuff in.”

Carrie couldn’t stop the look of shock and disgust that contorted her face.

“You’re kidding,” she said. She looked around, even meeting Bobby’s eyes in her desperation for someone to tell her it was a joke.

“Usually we get there a little sooner than the Orpheum, though,” Alex said.

“Wait, the Orpheum – when you appeared, that was you _getting_ there?” Carrie demanded.

“Those were extenuating circumstances,” Bobby said.

“No, shut up,” Carrie said. “I’m never going to be jealous of Julie’s group again. I can’t believe this. Kayla may not remember me but at least she’s _professional_.”

“We’re professionals,” Luke muttered, pouting.

“We’re dead,” Alex said. “We don’t get paid. How is that professional?”

“Does it count if Julie’s a professional?” Bobby asked.

“I don’t think that’s a contagious condition,” Alex pointed out.

“Ok,” Carrie said. “I’m going. Because I cannot stand you people.”

“And Flynn will be there,” Willie murmured. Carrie shrieked in outrage, pointing a furious finger at him. She still had no good response. He smirked at her.

“I’m leaving,” Carrie said with dignity.

Poofing away, as the boys called it, still felt really weird. She arrived in tonight’s venue feeling a little dizzy. It didn’t take long for her to locate Flynn, who was loudly explaining to the stage techs that Julie’s projector was coming with Julie, and Julie and Flynn would be setting it up, and no they could not examine it because the projector was a delicate instrument.

Carrie wondered if they were still using that clunky old thing that looked like it should be showing black-and-white still images.

“Look, we just want to make sure the holograms and the lighting won’t wash each other out,” one of the techs said.

“We played the Orpheum with only a few hours’ warning,” Flynn said tartly. “You think we don’t know what we’re doing?”

Carrie laughed softly, perching on one of the monitors to watch. Flynn’s eyes met hers for a split second, and she winked. Carrie looked away to hide her smile.

“Look, this is a union stage, there are rules,” the tech said. “We have to set up the equipment.”

“The projector isn’t equipment, it might as well be the fifth – sixth member of the band!” Flynn crossed her arms, holding her ground impressively considering she had to crane her neck to meet the tech’s eyes. “I know for a fact this was in the tech writer, because I wrote it. Or did you assume I didn’t know what I was talking about because I’m sixteen?”

Carrie clapped her hands together in delight. Flynn was fun to watch like this, when it wasn’t Carrie she was levelling her arguments at. Carrie had forgotten.

“Uh… excuse me, do you have another roadie?” a new stagehand approached, looking nervous.

“Oh, Nick! Great, he’ll back me up. He tried to set up the projector at one of Julie’s first performances and it wouldn’t work! We had to call the whole thing off.” That was an interesting retelling of the school dance story, Carrie thought, but it wasn’t like she could call Flynn on it.

Nick had barely stepped backstage before Flynn was grabbing his arm and pulling him up to the tech she’d been shouting at. In true Nick fashion, he just plastered on a bemused smile and waited for Flynn to explain.

“The projector is delicate and unique, right, Nick?” Flynn said with satisfaction.

“Uh, yeah,” he said. “Is that what you’re arguing about? I think you’re scaring some of the people here.”

“Good, maybe they’ll listen,” Flynn said. “Or maybe we’ll just wait to set up until Julie gets here, and she can tell you everything I’ve said, again. I’d offer to Skype the guys but they’re in a different time zone, and we do _not_ disturb them before they’re ready. It’s called basic respect.”

“Ok, fine, if it will calm you down,” the tech exclaimed. “But if I get in trouble for this…” They groaned, rubbing their face, as Flynn crossed her arms with a self-satisfied smile. God, Carrie loved her.

_Oh, no._

The smile faded from Carrie’s face. What Willie had said… all the little hints he and Alex, especially had dropped. The way even _Julie_ kept thinking Flynn and Carrie were dating.

The way Carrie had just sat here, watching Flynn terrify an adult like it was the best thing she’d ever seen.

She was in _love_ with _Flynn_.

Her eyes drifted away from Flynn, and Carrie gulped when she realised Nick was watching her.

He’d always been good at telling how she felt, no matter how Carrie tried to hide it. How much had Nick seen?

He smiled at Carrie and jerked his head gently towards the house. Carrie glanced nervously at Flynn, hoping that she at least hadn’t noticed anything. Flynn was rambling away to a different person, who Carrie was almost sure was the stage manager, which at least meant Carrie could rest easy with the knowledge Flynn wouldn’t be done for a while.

She sighed and followed Nick out. This was a conversation that had to happen sometime.

“So,” he said, perching on the arm of a seat in the front row. “Things are a lot better between you and Flynn now.”

Carrie didn’t say anything. She didn’t know what he wanted from her. They were exes, not friends; she was mean, so mean he broke up with her even though apparently he still cared. Nick didn’t owe her anything, and she didn’t know why he thought she’d tell him anything.

“Look, I’m not trying to pry,” he said. “You just looked… happy. And considering you’re kind of dead right now, that’s pretty impressive.”

“I’m sorry, ok?” Carrie snapped. “I treated you like a status symbol. You were never my boyfriend, you were just something I was trying. Is that what you’re here for? Closure?”

Nick shook his head, looking crestfallen.

“Carrie,” he said. “You looked _happy_. I’m glad.”

“Nick, just tell me what you want,” Carrie said.

“I don’t want anything, Carrie,” Nick said. “Look, you’re my friend. I thought. When you actually let yourself be vulnerable, Carrie, you’re…”

“A lot of fun,” Carrie said. “I remember.”

“Nice, actually,” Nick said. “I think you just let yourself forget that.”

Carrie swallowed.

“You saw me,” she said. “I – I like Flynn. We’re never getting back together. You told me that was what you wanted, remember?”

“Yeah,” Nick said. “Carrie, you said you were… trying something out.”

“Yes,” Carrie said.

“We have that in common,” he said. “Not the – For me, it was dating in general. And with Julie, too, I thought that if I wanted to hang out with a girl, that must be what a crush is.”

“What was it?” Carrie asked. This was not the conversation she’d expected, but then Nick had that habit.

“I wanted friends,” Nick said. “I admired you. But I don’t think I’ve ever been in love. I don’t think I ever will be.”

“Oh,” Carrie said. “So we were both just trying to be straight, then.”

Nick laughed.

“I guess so,” he said.

“I’m a lesbian,” Carrie said. “And I – I _really_ like Flynn.”

Nick smiled, the way he had when they’d had their first date and she’d spent the entire time talking about her new piece for Dirty Candi. It had embarrassed her, deep down, after they broke up, but maybe Nick wasn’t faking. Maybe he really was that enthralled with what made other people happy.

Maybe he really was her friend.

“Too bad I ruined it with her a long time ago,” Carrie said.

“I think, if you ruined it, she wouldn’t be helping you the way she is now,” Nick said. “Not that I’m a romance expert, the whole aromantic thing gets in the way, but… when you’re hiding how you feel from her, you’re not seeing what her face looks like when she looks at you.”

“Don’t do that,” Carrie said. “Don’t… I don’t want to hope, Nick. Not for that. I hurt her best friend. Flynn’s not the kind of person who ever forgives that.”

“Flynn’s not the person who has to forgive you for what you did to Julie,” Nick said. “And she’s pretty smart about this stuff. She knows that, too.”

Carrie shook her head, disbelieving. Still, if she kept protesting, who knew what Nick would pull. His stunt at the school dance with Julie paled in comparison to some of the stunts he’d pulled when they were dating.

“Promise me you’ll think about it?” Nick asked.

“Why do you care?” Carrie asked.

“Because somebody has to believe in you, if you won’t,” Nick said. “Maybe you’ll return the favour someday.”

“You don’t need me,” Carrie said.

“No,” Nick agreed. “But I like you anyway.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> No thoughts, head empty, just Carrie and Nick platonic best friends making me emotional.  
> It's fun doing this because Carrie has so much development that's happened, and this is a major moment in the romantic subplot, but also we all know I have way more chapters planned. What writing crimes will I commit? Many, but I think there's not much actual trauma coming. Just healing and coping.  
> Anyway, I want to dig deeper into aro Nick in the future, but this feels like a good amount in a story that's Flynn and Carrie centric. Be on the lookout for a Nick character study sometime when I'm done with the main fics in this series, because I love that boy and aro Nick is such a good vibe for me.  
> Next time: the last secret is very hard to keep, especially when one of the people keeping it doesn't know it's a secret. Willie is also very stubborn when his friends are in trouble.


	7. Lucky Enough to Be Forgiven

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Willie just wanted a fun night out with his friends, watching his cute drummer boyfriend do his cute drummer thing.

It wasn’t too long after Julie left that the rest of the band went to join her, with Willie following along. Willie had a feeling they would have left later, were it not for Carrie’s response to the usual routine – not he thought Luke was about to admit to that reasoning, of course.

Julie was excited to see them (Willie foresaw much earlier call times in the ghost band’s future, if Luke continued to be the one to set them) and possibly a little nervous, if Willie knew her as well as he thought. She immediately grabbed Reggie’s hands, speaking at lightning speed about the stage manager and her projector. As far as Willie could tell, nothing had gone wrong; it was just that something might have, and had been taken care of before Julie even got to the theatre. With a kiss to Alex’s cheek, he left to go find Flynn, Nick, and Carrie.

“Took you long enough,” Flynn teased when she saw him. “Are you even a _real_ fan?”

“Nah, I just think the drummer’s hot,” Willie said, flinging himself across several front row seats and crossing his arms behind his head. The position was actually really uncomfortable, but it was worth it for the aesthetic at least for a few moments. Also, the look on Nick’s face as Willie dangled his feet in front of him was priceless.

“I’ll take your word for it,” Carrie said snidely from behind Willie’s row. Willie sat up, wondering if he should be protecting Alex’s honour, but the way Flynn and Nick laughed told him no – another mark in the ‘Carrie is probably a lesbian’ column that he totally did not have outlined in his head.

“Been meaning to ask, man, how are you doing?” Willie asked Nick. When Nick shrugged, looking puzzled, Willie hurried to add, “You seemed pretty weird the other day at Flynn’s. Mostly with Bobby.”

“I mean, it’s kind of a weird situation,” Nick said. Carrie swore as Flynn scrambled over the back of the seat next to Willie. He turned around to stare at the girls, confused.

“Did I miss something?”

“Nope! Nothing!” Flynn said. “But, yeah, it’s super weird about Carrie, right, Nick?”

“This is exactly the tone of voice you use when you’re about to call me Nickypoo because Julie said something ridiculous,” Nick said flatly. “What are you two hiding?”

“Wait, that only happened once…” Flynn said.

“No, it’s happened at three times, but I think you said the last time was the time Julie’s band haunted Carrie’s dad, so I can forgive you for forgetting the rest,” Nick said with a laugh.

This was the first piece of information anybody had given Willie about Carrie’s family.

“Why would they haunt her dad?” Willie asked.

“Because…” Nick frowned, staring past Willie at Carrie and Flynn. Willie turned around to look at them again. Carrie was sitting stiffly in her seat, one hand clenched on the back of Willie’s chair. Flynn was on her knees, awkwardly wedged into the seat next to Willie, and she was staring at Willie like he was about to do something horrible.

“Ok,” Willie said. “Something is going on, and it has to do with Carrie’s dad. So what, exactly, did you two change?”

“You didn’t tell them?” Nick asked.

“We didn’t tell you that we didn’t tell them?” Flynn replied, looking horrified.

“Flynn, hey,” Willie said. He reached out to grip her arm lightly. He didn’t want to freak her out, but he knew her. She’d wriggle her way out of admitting to anything she thought would upset people.

“Look, it’s…” Flynn broke off as Ray and Carlos arrived.

“Good to see you, Flynn,” Ray said. “And Nick! You made it, too!”

“Were you talking to a ghost?” Carlos asked eagerly as Flynn settled in to sit normally.

“Yeah, I was, and no I’m not telling you what we were talking about,” Flynn said with a grin.

“So, uh… which seats are taken?” Ray asked, looking around as though he could spot Willie and Carrie through sheer will alone.

“You can sit over here,” Nick offered, pointing to the seats next to him. “Good view of Julie’s mic and the keyboard.”

As Ray and Carlos made themselves comfortable, and more people arrived in the house, Nick leaned over to Willie, Flynn, and Carrie.

“You can’t keep it from the others, Carrie,” he said quietly.

“You know we can handle whatever it is,” Willie said, trying for a supportive smile.

“You shouldn’t have to,” Flynn grumbled. She met his gaze reluctantly.

“Friends don’t lie,” Flynn said. She looked at Carrie, who scowled but didn’t protest. “After the show. Ok?”

“Thanks,” Willie said, trying not to let on the relief he felt. He was used to people keeping things from him for his own good; he wasn’t used to that from these people, though.

The show was a showcase of a few up-and-coming artists, not just Julie and the Phantoms, so at intermission the Molinas used their passes to slip backstage and congratulate Julie and the others. Willie stopped Flynn before she could follow.

“I’ve been thinking about it,” he said quietly. “But the way Nick acted with Bobby the other day – the way _you’ve_ been around him – and the fact that Alex and the others would haunt Carrie’s dad? Bobby survived in the original timeline, didn’t he?”

Flynn swallowed.

“Yes,” Carrie said. “She didn’t want to tell the others because it would upset them.”

“And why don’t you want to tell?” Willie asked, doubting that her word choice was accidental.

“Would you feel comfortable having that conversation?” Carrie asked, a little tartly but mostly tired. “Especially since I’m the one who gave him the speech that got him killed in the first place.”

Flynn and Nick both looked at her sharply. Willie wondered if Carrie had told anyone about that. If she had, she clearly hadn’t gone into detail.

“Look, take it from somebody who knows,” Willie said. “You can’t hide from your mistakes forever. Especially with the people you care about.”

“I travel back in time, and he never has to know,” Carrie said stubbornly.

“Maybe,” Willie said. “Maybe I never had to tell Alex about the stamps. Or I could have hidden how much I knew about Caleb, made it seem like I didn’t know what he could do. But that’s not what Alex deserved to know. And you know that Bobby – your dad – he deserves to know about this.”

“Carrie…” Flynn said softly.

“Hey, Flynn!” Carlos called, poking his head out of the stage door. Willie could clearly see a theatre employee frantically trying to pull him back in. “What are you doing?”

“We’ll tell them everything when the show is over,” Flynn said again. “Ok?”

Willie nodded. There was still one last stage appearance at the end, some kind of curtain call meant to remind any music professionals in the audience who the new bands were. He didn’t want Alex to panic before that. He, Flynn, and Nick headed towards the door.

“Willie,” Carrie said softly. He paused, letting Nick and Flynn vanish through the door, trying to think what she could want to say. They’d established he wasn’t lying for her.

“What?” he asked.

“How did you know I was in love with Flynn earlier?” she asked. “I didn’t even know.”

Willie laughed in astonishment.

“Sorry, it’s not funny,” he said. “Just… I mean, I didn’t? I just knew you like spending time with her.”

She still looked far too serious for the conversation. Love was meant to be bright and hopeful.

“How did you know?” he asked her gently.

“Well, everybody kept saying this stuff, and I –“

“How did _you_ know?” Willie pressed. There was something in Carrie he recognised. She’d spent her whole life being what other people wanted her to be, the way Willie had always tried to be what Caleb wanted.

“She was yelling at somebody backstage,” Carrie said. “She’s tiny, and sixteen, and she scared the hell out of multiple adults who’ve been in this business for years.”

“What else?”

“I – Flynn does this thing, where she talks really fast and hopes you don’t notice when she slips up, and she’s so confident about it that it actually works on most people,” Carrie said, gathering steam. “And she doesn’t even care that she’s wearing three different colours of leopard print or shiny rainbow lycra, and it all looks _good_ on her when I look so weird if I wear anything darker than hot pink. And I don’t know why she’s always working with Julie’s band, Flynn’s shows are amazing. She DJs, she raps – have any of you ever even heard her play?”

Willie hadn’t even known Flynn played an instrument.

“What does she play?” he asked.

“Trombone,” Carrie said. Willie couldn’t help but laugh.

“Right? It makes sense, but it’s so _dorky_ ,” Carrie said. “But… she’s really good.”

Willie prepared to prompt Carrie again, but she kept talking of her own accord.

“She cares so much about people,” Carrie said. “My whole life, I was told I had to put myself first, but Flynn… she puts so much of herself into other people but you can still _see_ her. She’s still Flynn. I never managed that, I was always Trevor Wilson’s daughter or Julie’s friend, no matter how hard I tried. I guess it was easier to be jealous than admire her for something I wanted, but… Even after everything she let me back in. Flynn’s helping me.”

“Sometimes we’re lucky enough to be forgiven by people who never had to,” Willie said quietly. He thought of Alex, who’d never blamed him for what happened with Caleb once he’d convinced Willie to explain. “It’s nice. Being in love with somebody that kind.”

Carrie frowned.

“You’re pretty kind, too,” she said. “For what it’s worth.”

Willie laughed uncomfortably.

“You know me _now_ ,” he said.

“And you don’t know what I was like,” Carrie said. “I can guarantee I was worse.”

“That’s why you don’t want your dad to know, isn’t it?”

Carrie frowned down at her feet, hugging herself.

“No,” she said. “Yes. But Willie… I’ve gotten better, and that part I’m not ashamed of. My dad… I don’t want to be the one to tell Bobby that he’s going to get worse.”

“What does that mean?” Willie asked. Bobby was quiet, mostly, except when he leapt to somebody’s defense. He’d been an incorrigible flirt at the Hollywood Ghost Club, and maybe came to rehearsals less-than-prepared more often than Luke or Julie would like, but he was a lot of fun. He had accepted Willie into their group as quickly as anybody, after a brief variation on the shovel talk that had Willie legitimately concerned for his afterlife for a moment.

What could Carrie, a girl with some pretty obvious emotional issues of her own, possibly mean by “worse”?

“Later,” Carrie said. “Only if it comes up. Please?”

Willie swallowed his worry, well aware that if he pressed too much Carrie would blow up at him again.

“It’ll be ok,” he said. “They’re the forgiving types, if you really mean that you’re sorry.”

Carrie pursed her lips and didn’t reply, though she did take the hand Willie offered and let him lead her to the back where Julie and the others were waiting.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Do I know what this show that they're playing is? Why it's set up this way? No, I don't. It all just exists for plot convenience. I do what I want.  
> And now! Willie knows so many things about Carrie and Bobby, both! We're about to get into the real thick of it, folks, get ready for some Bobby pov and all-around character development as the fic goes on. (and yes. yes Carrie did mention the name Trevor Wilson, and Willie may not have noticed in the moment but you can bet that's coming back later.)  
> Willie continues to be highly emotionally intelligent, and admits some things about his own feelings that he would not have said three fics ago. Good for you, Willie! Proud of you. Carrie is... kind of getting there. You may notice Flynn is not doing this so much. She has...reasons.  
> Next time, Bobby learns who Carrie is. Julie learns that Flynn has been lying to her. Things are, quite understandably, really weird.


	8. I Don't Actually Know This Story

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Truths are told. Words are had. Bobby absolutely does not want to be here.

Julie’s family gave Flynn and Nick a ride back to the Molina house, and Bobby and the other ghosts poofed back home like usual.

“Bro, that was such a good show!” Luke crowed, wrapping an arm around Bobby’s neck in a gesture somewhere between a hug and a headlock. Bobby shoved him back good-naturedly, steering him towards Reggie. That was the nice thing about Luke dating people in the band, Bobby had found – he could always send Luke off to one of them if it got too much. Bobby loved the guy, but the twenty-four/seven hugging thing? A little stressful at times.

Sometimes Bobby wondered if that was just because he wasn’t one of Luke’s _best_ friends. Even Alex, who’d been known to reject his fair share of touch, seemed at ease around the most boisterous versions of Luke. Maybe it was because Bobby had missed out on being childhood friends.

But that was a way too depressing thought, especially when they just killed it onstage. He shook his hair from his eyes and beamed at Alex, who was holding Willie’s hand in a completely unsurprising turn of events.

“Yeah, you were great,” Carrie said softly. Flynn’s friend was lingering by the door, arms crossed over her midsection, glancing behind her every so often like a dog listening for their person’s car.

“Well, you don’t have to get excited for us or anything,” Luke teased.

“I bet it was that last song the second band played, that was really depressing,” Reggie said. “Also, a weird note for them to end on.”

“I… don’t think that’s it,” Bobby said, patting Reggie on the shoulder. Not that he was as good with girls as he liked to pretend – he pointedly didn’t think about the fact that he was the only one in the band not to have found somebody to date post-death, because that was a weird thing to be jealous about – but he did know a thing or two about people getting upset. He’d had to talk the guys through enough family drama in his lifetime, after all.

“What’s going on?” he asked Carrie.

“I’m waiting for Flynn,” she said.

Bobby glanced at the others. Luke and Reggie looked baffled. Alex was looking at Willie, whose smile wasn’t as big as it had been a few seconds ago.

“Did something happen during the show?” Alex asked, glancing at Carrie and then back to his boyfriend.

“No,” Carrie said. “Nothing new. Just…”

The sound of a car pulling in made Carrie straighten up. She sent a beseeching glance to Willie.

“Dude, you totally know what’s going on, don’t you?” Alex murmured. Willie grimaced.

“Carrie and Flynn told me what they changed,” he said.

“Dude!” Luke exclaimed. “So we can help fix it now, right?”

“You don’t even know what it is, so shut up!” Carrie snapped. Bobby took a step back. He’d thought she was done with the shouting and the insults, but apparently not.

“Don’t talk to him like that, we just want to help,” Bobby protested quietly. Carrie hunched her shoulders.

The sound of Julie singing filled the air, and she swung open the studio doors a few seconds later. Her family and living friends were with her, Carlos singing too (and badly). Flynn and Nick were quiet, though, and Bobby wondered what the girls could have changed that would make everybody this nervous. Did somebody die to make sure Carrie got born?

For a wild moment he wondered if Julie and the Phantoms was supposed to exist at all, but then he remembered that Flynn probably wouldn’t have known about time travel if she’d never known about ghosts. So, if somebody had died, it probably wasn’t anybody Bobby knew.

“You kids have an hour before Nick and Flynn head home,” Ray announced to the studio at large. He stared around the room like he was trying to make eye contact with the ghosts in spite of his not knowing where anybody was. “If I get a noise complaint from a neighbour, we’re reconsidering our lights-out policies.”

“Sounds good, Ray,” Reggie said. “Ooh! I’m helping you make breakfast tomorrow, right?”

Julie laughed as she hurried to update her dad on Reggie’s words. As they drifted into an intense discussion of the best way to cook pancakes, Bobby watched Flynn drift over to Carrie.

“So?” Flynn asked.

“I figured I’d wait for you,” Carrie said. “So… so Julie can hear, too.”

Flynn actually looked _afraid_ for a moment. Bobby was seriously getting worried about whatever it was that had happened.

“An hour,” Ray reminded them all as he shepherded Carlos out the door, and then it was just the band, Flynn, Nick, Willie, and Carrie.

“What’s going on?” Julie asked, noticing the tension now that some of the excitement had dissipated. “Flynn?”

“I need to tell you why I don’t exist now,” Carrie said, eyes fixed on a point just past Julie’s shoulder. When Julie didn't respond, Reggie let out a little "oh!" and whispered in her ear.

“Oh – ok,” Julie said slowly. “I thought you didn’t want me to help.”

“I don’t,” Carrie said as Reggie continued to relay her words. “But – you all should know.”

Flynn sucked in a breath and looked away from the others. Julie glanced around the room.

“Let’s sit down,” she suggested.

Julie, Reggie, Luke and Flynn claimed the couch. Weirdly, Flynn sat on the arm closest to Reggie, instead of by Julie. Reggie poked her thigh lightly and smiled at her when she looked at him. Bobby almost didn’t see the quick, feeble smile she sent back.

Nick grabbed one of the armchairs, leaving Bobby with the one they never used as Willie settled on the coffee table with Alex leaning against it, head in Willie’s lap. Carrie stood in front of them all, looking genuinely fearful for perhaps the first time since Bobby had met her.

“I met my dad in the past,” she said. Her eyes kept flicking over to Luke, who had taken over translation duties for Julie. It was almost like she was watching him for Julie's reaction. “And I kind of… gave him a speech about friendship that apparently led to him dying.”

That… was a lot. Bobby tried to think of a good way to cut the silence.

“You give a lot of speeches about friendship, huh?” he said.

“Oh, boy,” Nick murmured, staring wide-eyed into space.

“What?” Bobby asked. Ok, so maybe “cheer her up” wasn’t the best option, but he was trying!

“It was you,” Carrie said. Bobby could almost hear the unsaid insult. “I only gave one friendship speech, ok, I’m not really great at friends so I don’t _have_ a lot of advice to give out!”

“But you said you gave it to your dad,” Bobby said. Over on the couch, Julie elbowed Luke, who was staring dumbfounded at Carrie, and she, Luke, and Reggie erupted in a flurry of whispers.

“Dude,” Alex said flatly. Carrie covered her face with her hands.

“This is the most embarrassing moment of my life,” she said.

“But… Dead people don’t have kids,” Bobby said, well aware he sounded like an absolute idiot but unable to really change that. There was no way. He was a kid! A dead kid. Who had, apparently, somehow created another dead kid.

“You weren’t dead in the original timeline,” Flynn said sharply. “Carrie’s little speech must have encouraged you to go get street dogs with the others –“

“Actually Reggie got them for us, but Julie said that we all got them together in the original timeline,” Bobby murmured, and regretted it instantly when Reggie flinched.

“You ate hot dogs and died,” Flynn said loudly, clearly ready to be done with the conversation. “But before, you decided to stick around the Orpheum and flirt with a bartender.”

The only bartender that night had been the one girl whose face Bobby had remembered, after Flynn and Carrie’s brief time at his house – the one they’d said was Julie’s mom.

“Seriously?” he asked. “Am I doomed to flirt with Julie’s mom in every universe?”

“My mom was at the Orpheum?” Julie asked.

“Dude,” Alex said, sitting upright and staring at the others. Reggie laughed in shock.

“Yeah,” Luke said. “So I guess, between wanting to hang out with us more and the fact that Rose already shot you down…”

“I… could’ve been alive this whole time,” Bobby said. “I could’ve been alone.”

There was a lump in his throat, and he didn’t know what, exactly, set him off.

“Flynn,” Julie said softly. “You knew about this?”

“I had no idea your mom was at the Orpheum,” Flynn said quickly.

“Flynn,” Julie said more sternly. Reggie and Luke shrank back into the couch cushions as Julie and Flynn stared at each other across the length of the couch.

“I’m sorry, Jules,” Flynn said.

“Friends don’t lie to each other,” Julie said. “You told me that, Flynn, and you were right. So why…”

“I didn’t want you to lose a friend,” Flynn said, eyes welling up with tears. “Julie, I know how much the band means to you.”

“And I accepted a _long_ time ago that someday I’m gonna say goodbye to them!” Julie snapped. Bobby swallowed.

They hadn’t talked about the Orpheum show, not really. They’d all been too relieved that they could stay together. Bobby didn’t know for sure – he certainly wasn’t about to pry – but he was pretty sure Julie, Luke, and Reggie had never really talked about the future of their relationship. They were living in the present, for as long as they could get away with it, if Bobby knew them at all.

But Bobby had been trying not to think about it, because if he thought about crossing over he thought about the fact that maybe they all had different unfinished business, or worse – that the others had the same business, something he didn’t share, and he’d be left alone. The idea that Julie had been quietly accepting of this the whole time, that she’d just looked at the people Bobby couldn’t imagine living without and decided that “for now” was good enough…

“Julie,” Luke said, reaching for her hand. She pulled away and stood up, marching over to Flynn.

“You’re not my human shield, Flynn,” Julie said. “You’re my friend. I trust you to tell me the hard truths, not just curl around me and take everything the world throws at me.”

“Julie, please,” Flynn pleaded. Bobby wasn’t sure he should be here anymore, listening to this, but he was afraid if he poofed away the girls would notice.

“I understand why you did it,” Julie said. “And I appreciate that you’re telling me now. But I can’t… Flynn, I am _worried_. You keep acting like you can protect me from everything. I just need my _friend_.”

“I know I shouldn’t have lied,” Flynn said. “And I can’t even say Carrie asked me to, I made the decision. I’m sorry.” She sniffled, wiping away tears with her sleeve. “I was scared, Julie. We’ve dealt with a lot, but erasing an entire person from the world… I didn’t know what the right thing to do was, and trying not to hurt you at least… feels right.”

Julie was blinking back tears of her own.

“Flynn, promise me,” she said. “I know there are some things other people ask you to keep quiet, and there are things you’re not ready to say, but when it’s something you can tell me, I need you to tell me. No matter how much it hurts, or how scary it is.”

“I promise,” Flynn said. She reached out to Julie, who took her hand and squeezed.

“So we’re good now, right, we can get back to the ‘my dad is in your band’ part of this?” Carrie asked.

“Carrie!” Flynn snapped. Julie turned around, looking confused, and Flynn quickly repeated what Carrie had said.

“Sorry, I just figured maybe everybody else also had questions,” Carrie said, curling in on herself. “I wasn’t trying to be mean, for once.”

“Wow,” Flynn said, a laugh threatening to break through the thickness her tears had left in her voice. “You almost admitted that you do that on purpose.”

“Of course I do, you think anybody could be as witty and cutting as I am on accident?” Carrie scoffed. Bobby, who between Reggie, Willie, and Flynn was by now an expert in friends who used humour to cut tension, was impressed. Clearly, anger wasn’t the only way Carrie knew to deflect emotions.

“I do have a question, actually,” Willie spoke up. “Carrie, earlier when we were talking you said something about being Trevor Wilson’s daughter. Who’s that?”

Carrie looked between Flynn and Nick frantically.

“Um,” Flynn said. “Yeah, Carrie, let’s… talk about that.”

Neither girl looked terribly excited. Nick raised his hand.

“Would now be a good time to say that I don’t actually know this story?”

Carrie groaned.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hmmm that sure is a lot that just got thrown at bobby huh, how could it possibly get worse... he's already got so much insecurity in just under 2k words, surely it can't pile on any more than this...  
> Yeah, you all know where this is going. You know me, you know canon, who am I kidding.  
> I feel kind of horrible for having Julie and Flynn at odds here but considering Julie doesn't lie in canon (bad liar! people trust her! immediately tells Flynn she lied! we all know how fervently I believe this) and the one time she tried it on Flynn resulted in the near destruction of their friendship (even though Flynn clearly values Julie's friendship as seen in her speech about music class) we absolutely had to get into it. I love Flynn dearly, and I will not let her have double standards. sometimes that means the girls must suffer consequences to their actions.  
> (also, you may have read this when i first posted and noticed it seemed like julie could hear/see carrie, and that was. a mistake. it's the secret director's cut version)  
> Next time: the details of Trevor Wilson's career may well fall under the category of excusable omissions, since Carrie has expressed the desire that her dad not know the truth about his future, but the real question is how much can the girls keep quiet?


	9. What Has to Change

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Bobby sure is having a night.

“That,” Carrie said before swallowing hard. “That is… my dad’s name. A stage name.”

“Why would I use a stage name?” Bobby said. “And Trevor Wilson? What, did I become a country singer? That’s a terrible stage name. You know what’s a cool stage name? Bon Jovi.”

“No, it’s not,” Carrie muttered.

“Dude, that’s not even his stage name, that’s the band name,” Luke put in.

“Do we need to have this discussion right now?” Alex asked. “Why _did_ Bobby use a stage name? People already knew him. People knew Sunset Curve. Why start over, and why are you acting like this is a big deal, because a stage name really shouldn’t be, and now I’m kind of freaking out!”

“It’s fine! He just changed his name, that’s all!” Carrie said frantically.

“Wait, I picked a stage name, or I _changed_ my name?” Bobby said.

“Look, there’s a lot of conspiracy theories out there,” Flynn said quietly. “If my whole band died and people were saying things about me, I’d probably want to hide from it, too.”

“Wait, people thought – people thought I killed them?”

“We don’t know what happened,” Flynn said. She glanced at Julie and sighed. “We know a little bit. And we’ve guessed a lot of the rest. But Carrie’s dad never talked about it. We didn’t even know he used to _live_ here, and that’s with Carrie coming over as a kid constantly. That’s with _Rose_ knowing about Sunset Curve. Whatever happened, he didn’t want to talk about it, and Julie’s mom respected that, which means she had a good reason to.”

“But why? Why _wouldn’t_ I talk about my best friends?” Bobby asked. “Ok, there’s the rest of the world. I get that. But to – to my own daughter? And if Rose and I were friends, why…”

“Are you under the delusion that I would somehow know this?” Carrie snapped. Bobby shrank into his seat. It wasn’t his fault she didn’t know. Or, it wasn’t his fault yet.

“Carrie…” Willie said quietly. She stepped back, folding her arms around herself.

“Look, I wish I’d known more, ok?” Carrie said. “I wish…”

“It’s not your fault,” Julie said. When everybody looked at her in surprise, she smiled faintly and lifted the hand that was still holding Flynn’s. “Also, you were right about Flynn. It took a minute, but… hi.”

“Oh, that’s weird,” Flynn muttered.

“Look, Carrie,” Julie said. She started to step forward, only to glance back at Flynn when she reached the limits of their arms’ reach. Turning back to Carrie with a gentle smile, she said, “I know you know my mom didn’t tell me everything about herself. It’s not your fault, that your dad – that Bobby never told you about the band. You couldn’t have known there was anything to tell.”

“It’s a little different,” Carrie murmured.

“Carrie, look,” Julie said, but the studio door opened and Ray poked his head in. Bobby couldn’t say he was upset about it. He wasn’t sure he could handle much more of this conversation.

“Time to go home, Flynn, Nick,” he said. He frowned, taking in what parts of the tableau he could see: Julie holding Flynn’s hand but facing away, Nick with his elbows propped on his knees and his eyes fixed on the floor like he’d just seen a war. “Is everything ok?”

“Drama in ghost-land,” Flynn said. “We’re living a soap opera at this point.”

“We’re trying to help Flynn’s friend,” Julie said.

“We’re not –“ Flynn cut herself off and shook her head, rolling her eyes fondly. “Yeah. She was telling us about her life, some stuff that would help.”

“Ok, well,” Ray said, looking around like he could catch Bobby or one of the others if he tried hard enough. Bobby almost smiled. He could imagine one of his parents doing something like that.

Would Bobby – no. Would Trevor Wilson be that kind of dad?

Or was Trevor Wilson the reason Carrie was so messed up?

“Bye, Flynn,” Julie said, tugging her friend close. Bobby could see Julie’s face over Flynn’s shoulder; she looked almost mournful.

“See you, Julie,” Nick said when it was his turn.

“Sorry you had to sit in on the drama,” Julie said ruefully.

“Hey, you’re my friend, Carrie’s my friend, I’ve got a lot of friends here,” he said, gesturing around. Bobby swallowed, noticing Nick’s hand fell short of including him. “It’s my drama, too.”

Everybody traded goodbyes with Flynn and Nick, except Bobby. Flynn and Nick didn’t seem to notice.

“Good night,” Bobby managed to choke out as they left. Flynn glanced back and smiled distractedly in his direction.

“Flynn, wait up!” Carrie called as the lifer slipped out the door.

Then they were gone, and it was just the band. The band, and Bobby, he guessed.

“So,” Luke said. He glanced at Bobby. “I guess we know what has to change, right?”

“Right,” Bobby said. "Except we decided. We said we wanted the band we have now, that we weren't gonna change things."

"Yeah, because whenever we talked about it nobody had a daughter," Reggie said. "But alive you, in that alternate timeline - he didn't want to be erased."

"Carrie's depending on you," Julie said softly. "Bobby, we're not more important than that."

"I know," Bobby said. "I know. But..."

From the moment he'd met Luke, he'd known he was never really going to be part of the group. The others had done their best, and in some ways Julie was a blessing for him because she'd always seen Bobby as just one of the guys. But he wasn't a hugger like them, he wasn't the kind of musical genius who made the band his whole life - it was honestly a little surprising to hear that he'd gone into music with the band gone, let alone made an entire career out of it.

"Bobby," Willie said. Bobby had almost forgotten he was there. "Man, I know this is a lot. But you were meant to have a whole life! And that's not changing things. That's fixing them."

"Yeah," Alex said. "You won't hurt our feelings just because you've got a life waiting for you. We're happy for you."

They all wanted him to go. And yeah, it was because Carrie's life depended on him, but would they accept it so easily if it was Reggie? Or Luke?

“I… I gotta go.”

He vanished, unable to sit there with the people he apparently was never meant to be with. The only people he wanted to be with. His late night fears had been right all along, Bobby thought hysterically as he appeared on a random street somewhere in downtown LA. He really wasn’t one of the group.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is. so darn much. I have a lot of thoughts about Bobby but I used them all up and now can articulate nothing except: he's seventeen? he's not ready to be a father, and hasn't quite realised this doesn't mean he has to be one as a seventeen year old. Also, you know, everything he actively thought about. Poor Bobby, getting in on this author-projection deal. It's a rough gig.  
> Next time: Carrie and Flynn check in (rhyme unintentional). Various Phantoms have a lot of thoughts about the recent developments.


	10. Worst Surprise of the Night

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's a bad day when the best case scenario is that Julie's ghost powers are on the fritz.

“Flynn?” Carrie said softly as Flynn got out of Ray’s car. Flynn bid Ray goodbye and turned to face Carrie, her expression almost completely blank except for a slight sheen of water still over her eyes.

“What, Carrie?” Flynn said.

“I’m sorry,” Carrie said. “That you got in a fight with Julie.”

“It wasn’t a fight,” Flynn said. “Julie called me out. She was right.”

Carrie frowned. “But…”

“It’s not like our friendship is over,” Flynn said, brushing past Carrie to go inside. She paused with her hand on the doorknob. “Thank you, though. I think this might be the first time you’ve apologised to me.”

“I apologised earlier,” Carrie said. “After my admittedly terrible joke.”

“Ok, it’s the second time in our lives,” Flynn said. “That still… It’s not the worst surprise of the night.”

Carrie tried to smile. It was probably a bad sign that the girl she was in love with was shocked by something as simple as an apology.

“There’s… maybe a lot of stuff I should be sorry for,” Carrie said.

“Yeah,” Flynn said. “But you can save it for when you’re alive.”

Carrie swallowed. How would that even work? Everything was so different, and people would _notice_. Kayla and the others would want to know why they suddenly didn’t hate Flynn and Julie anymore. Everyone would pry. Was Carrie supposed to start working with Julie? What would their teachers’ reactions be? Everyone expected certain things from Carrie – what would it be like when she seemed to change overnight?

“Carrie?” Flynn said quietly. “You ok?”

“Just… it’s a lot,” Carrie said. “My dad and everything. He didn’t seem too happy about the whole ‘we’re going to bring you back to life’ thing.”

“I mean, it’s a lot,” Flynn said. “I’m sure he’s just processing.”

“Right,” Carrie said. “Yeah.”

Flynn sighed.

“Do you want to come in?” she offered as she opened the door. “Watch some Netflix or something until I pass out?”

“Yes,” Carrie said quickly. That was way too eager. She tried to put on an aloof expression. “That would be… nice.”

Flynn’s lips twitched.

“Come on, then,” she said. “I think Legally Blonde is still up on Netflix.”

Carrie bit her lip, trying to hide her giddy grin. At least _one_ thing had worked out tonight.

Luke bounced nervously in his seat. Bobby was a dad, but also gone, and what was Luke even supposed to say to him when he got back?

What would the band be like, without Bobby?

“He’s – he’s coming back, right?” Julie said hesitantly. “I mean, should somebody go after him?”

“Sometimes you need time alone,” Alex said slowly, though he didn’t sound convinced. “Maybe we give him a few minutes.”

“I just don’t know if being alone is what he _needs_ ,” Julie said.

“Yeah, well, there’s a lot I guess we don’t know about Bobby,” Luke said, jumping to his feet. Julie grabbed his hand before he could get very far.

“Everything you just found out, he found out, too,” Julie said.

“I know,” Luke said. He wasn’t upset at Bobby, not really. “But… why’d he change his _name_? It’s like… Bobby was the last member of Sunset Curve, right? So why not keep our names out there? I mean, in a world where one of us survived _and_ kept their ties to the band, my parents would know…”

“Luke,” Reggie said softly, springing up from the couch and hugging him. Julie wriggled into the hug as well, tangling her free hand in his hair.

“You know Bobby would never mean to do something like that,” Alex said. “He probably just… couldn’t handle the memories.”

“I know,” Luke said. He groaned and pulled away from his partners. “Somebody should go after him.”

“Wait, are we supposed to choose? Because Alex is probably the best at this stuff since he freaks out the same way,” Reggie rambled.

“Hey,” Alex said mildly.

“And then Luke, you were Bobby’s friend first, you asked him to join the band,” Reggie said. “But also I really want to know if he’s ok. Maybe we all go?”

“You probably don’t want him to feel like he’s being ganged up on,” Julie said. “Look, Luke led Sunset Curve. If you think you know what to say, Luke…”

“Yeah,” he said. “No, yeah, anything for Bobby.” He took a breath, trying to figure out where Bobby had poofed off to.

He couldn’t tell.

“I guess we waited too long,” Luke said slowly. “Julie, can you find him?”

“Of course,” she said. Luke waited as she closed her eyes. When Julie opened her eyes, frowning, Luke’s heart dropped.

“Jules?” he asked. That wasn’t a happy face.

“I can’t find him,” she said worriedly. “I mean – I know your ghost sense thing fades, but I can _find_ ghosts. Guys, I think something’s wrong.”

“Ava?” Reggie said quietly. “Or Caleb?”

“Caleb can’t hurt anyone,” Willie said, though he didn’t sound too sure about that.

“You should go looking,” Julie said. “My dad won’t exactly let me wander around LA, not this late, but you know where Bobby might go, right?”

“Yeah,” Luke said. “We’ll find him.”

“We should get Carrie,” Reggie said. “Bobby’s her dad. They probably could use a talk if she’s the one who finds him.”

“I’ll text Flynn,” Julie said. She looked around the room. “Keep me updated. Ok? If we’re saying goodbye to Bobby, we’re doing it on _our_ terms. On his. Not Caleb’s and not Ava’s.”

Luke smiled.

“We’ll be back soon,” he said, impulsively planting a kiss on her forehead. He considered regretting it as soon as he pulled away, but he didn’t think the wide-eyes way Julie stared at him was a bad thing. “We’ll bring Bobby home with us.”

“You better,” Julie said, cupping Luke’s cheek in one hand and Reggie’s in the other. Then she smacked them both lightly on the face. “Go!”

“I can check the house his parents moved to,” Alex offered as he stood up.

“Any suggestions for me?” Willie asked. “I don’t know where he’d go, but…”

“Our first show?” Reggie suggested. “In the park.”

“Yeah,” Luke said. “Yeah, Willie, I got a couple places to try…”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh look, a wild Luke pov! Been a minute since we had one of those, I hope you enjoyed this in spite of the Suffering  
> It's a lot of fun writing Luke, actually, because you take all his emotions and filter them through "the band" knowing full well it has way more depth than that and the band is just like. His ongoing metaphor for dealing with life. Luke's a whole mood, actually. "How will this affect my art?" I say, not really talking about the art at all. Oof. Poor Luke, and also everybody.  
> Next time: why can't they find Bobby? Nobody knows, but Flynn didn't sleep all night because of it. And when one is sleep-deprived, one finally admits to things one has not even addressed to oneself in the past two lengthy fics. That's right, folks, it's Flynn angst time!


	11. Running Around Shouting

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "Alex" is emotional. Definitely Alex. Nobody else, certainly not Flynn.

Flynn hadn’t slept at all in the hours since she got a text from Julie, asking her to tell Carrie that Bobby had disappeared. Julie didn’t exactly _need_ a search party to find one ghost, which meant things were really messy.

And of course, even with magic, what could Flynn do? She only knew how to make her friends see ghosts, except of course at this point every single one of her friends could anyway.

She couldn’t even be the person to talk sense into Bobby, which was the thing Flynn was proud to say she was very good at. She didn’t _know_ Bobby. What could Flynn possibly have to convince him of anything?

Finally, after a night of nervous dozing and starting awake whenever a new worry occurred to her, Flynn stumbled downstairs to breakfast.

“I know family night is tonight,” she said to her parents. “I swear I’ll be there. But can I please go to Julie’s this morning?”

Her parents exchanged glances.

“Flynn? What’s wrong?”

Flynn wasn’t sure how to even explain it. “I – Julie’s band… One of the guys is in trouble. Julie needs moral support.”

“It must be hard, with friends so far away,” Flynn’s mom murmured. “There’s only so much you can do. Flynn, you and Julie can’t beat yourself up over what the boys do. You don’t _know_ their lives –“

“Mom, believe me. I know.”

Her mother’s eyebrows shot up.

“You know,” she said. “What I’m going to say? Or you know their lives?”

“I didn’t mean to interrupt,” Flynn said. “I just – I know that I’m not the right person to help the guys. But it’s better me than no one. Please, let me go over this morning.”

“Flynn,” her dad said gently.

“If you say no I’ll probably just sneak out,” Flynn announced. “So, like, there’s that.”

“Flynn!” her mother said sharply. “For your information, young lady… I’m all right with it. Don’t backtalk us before you know what we’re going to say.”

Flynn smiled.

“Sorry,” she said. “And thank you.”

“Flynn, you can’t keep running around shouting because you think the whole world is refusing to hear,” her mom said as Flynn got up to put her plate away and get ready. “That’s how you drown out the answers you’re looking for.”

Flynn nodded, because if she admitted that her mom sounded like a fortune cookie she’d be in for a three-hour lecture, and Flynn wasn’t going to put off going to Julie’s any longer.

“To be clear,” her dad called without looking up from his own breakfast. “There are people in this world you can always shout at. Just remember that none of them are your parents.”

“Hush!” Flynn’s mom hissed, slapping playfully at his arm.

“I think our Flynn has some excellent shouting skills, it would be a shame to waste them,” he continued mildly. Flynn giggled as she hurried to put on her shoes.

The brief moment of humour was gone by the time Flynn left the house, though, leaving the walk over to Julie’s full of increasingly heavy thoughts. Her time in the past had been bad enough, looking at some of her best friends like they were strangers, doubting that she knew what choices they’d make. But everyone around her _knew_ Bobby, and if they were at a loss… If even Julie and Luke, beings of pure charisma, couldn’t figure out what to do, what could Flynn offer?

“Flynn!” Julie almost smacked Flynn in the face with the studio door when she tried to enter. Julie stepped aside to let Flynn go in.

“I was gonna ask Dad and Carlos if they’d seen any, you know, tell-tale ghost haunting signs,” Julie said rapidly. “In case Bobby came back in the night. Can you wait here? Carrie’s still not back, but the guys were touching base with me.”

“Sure,” Flynn said, her stomach squirming. Julie paused long enough to smile at Flynn.

“Thank you,” she said sincerely, and then she went running off towards the house.

“Hey, guys,” Flynn said.

“But we’ve looked everywhere!” Luke exclaimed. “Hey, Flynn,” he murmured as an afterthought. Alex rolled his eyes and offered Flynn a tiny smile.

“I don’t get it,” Willie said. “It’s like, Bobby just got told he gets a free pass back to life, and he’s got over twenty years guaranteed. Why run away?”

“Maybe he’s not ready to be a dad?” Reggie suggested.

“He’s not a dad yet,” Alex said, starting to pace the length of the studio. “Carrie would be way older. Bobby’s got lots of time, and I’m pretty sure he knows enough basic math to know that.”

“He’s a musician, none of us can count higher than four,” Flynn blurted, trying for humour. If the guys were offended by the joke, or thought it beneath her usual calibre, that would have been one thing.

They just… didn’t seem to notice. Flynn swallowed.

It hadn’t been a very good way to break the tension, anyway.

“Look, _we_ didn’t exactly choose life,” Reggie said.

“Yeah, but that was a choice between Julie and nobody,” Alex said. “This is his _daughter_.”

“This is so weird!” Luke exclaimed, which Flynn thought seemed incredibly unhelpful.

“Yeah, no offense, but if somebody told me they could change how things went down, no side effects, I think I’d take it,” Willie muttered.

Flynn took a shaky step back. Willie seemed to notice her for the first time.

“Flynn?”

“You wouldn’t, though,” she said. “Would you? Not if Alex asked. Or even Julie.”

Willie sighed ruefully, smiling at Alex.

“Yeah,” he said. “You’re right.”

“But you’d take it if I offered, wouldn’t you?” Flynn muttered. She didn’t mean for them to hear, but each of the ghosts froze, turning to look at her.

Great, _now_ they noticed her.

“Flynn?” Willie asked.

“Sorry, I’m being stupid,” Flynn said.

“No, something’s weird,” Willie said. “Something’s wrong. Flynn, it was just a bad joke –“

“No, it wasn’t, it was the truth,” Flynn said, pulling away from Willie’s outstretched hand. He lowered his hand, looking hurt. Flynn felt more than a twinge of self-loathing; it had taken a lot to get Willie to the point where he reached out to everybody, not just Alex.

“Flynn, what’s going on with you?” Luke asked. “I know it’s been crazy, with Carrie and everything, but you’ve barely talked to any of us since you got back.”

“What?” Flynn said. “I’ve been around you guys so much! What are you even talking about –“

“Even when you talk to Julie, it’s just been about ghost stuff,” Reggie said. “Or the band. And you were getting really good at talking about how you feel, before you went back.”

“I’m – I’m not exactly important right now,” Flynn said softly. “Bobby –“

“Is gonna have a lot better chances if you’re at your best,” Luke said. He sat on the couch and patted the spot next to him. “Flynn, what’s going on with you?”

Flynn swallowed. She’d barely even admitted it to herself.

“I just… Willie was right there,” she said. “And so were all of you, but I… I kept having to tell myself, ‘ok do what they’d want you to do, if they were here and you asked’ and – I don’t know the answer.”

“What answer?” Alex asked.

“I know what you’d say, if Julie gave you the option,” Flynn said. “Of changing things. Of going back to life, or moving on, or whatever. But I’m not her. I’m not in the band, I’m not – I’m just the lifer along for the ride.”

“Wait, let me get this straight,” Alex said. Willie snickered, and Alex sent him a warning glance. “Yeah, Willie, I heard it too. Flynn, you think that if… if we didn’t have the band, if Julie wasn’t around, and you said ‘hey, best friends who’ve faced life or death or… extra-death situations with me, would you like to abandon me and erase all that from existence’ – you think we’d say yes?”

Flynn was only about ninety percent sure what all that had meant, but she nodded because it sounded about right.

“Flynn,” Alex said. “That’s ridiculous. And _I have anxiety_! I know ridiculous fears!”

“Yeah, dude, this band wouldn’t _exist_ without you,” Luke said. “Our first song was yours. _Flying Solo_ , remember?”

“Your first song was _Bright_ ,” Flynn said.

“Nah, that was Sunset Curve’s final performance, backing up Julie Molina. Julie and the Phantoms? That was all you.”

“I can’t believe your pep talk is literally about music,” Flynn said, trying to blink away the water in her eyes.

“So? I’m right,” Luke said. “You think, because you’re not in the band, you don’t mean as much to us. Right?”

Flynn shrugged. Luke was not supposed to be this good at picking apart emotions, and she didn’t know how she felt about being so easy to read.

“You _are_ the band, just as much as any of us,” Luke said. “Julie couldn’t have joined us if she hadn’t patched things up with you. We couldn’t have joined her if you hadn’t invited us. You made the band.”

“What he means is, you’re our friend and we love you,” Alex put in. “You know. In case you need a translation.”

“That’s what I _said_ ,” Luke protested. Flynn laughed, then sniffed.

“Come here,” Reggie said, wrapping his arms around Flynn. “You need a hug.”

“Reggie,” Flynn protested half-heartedly, slipping her arms around him anyway.

“You don’t think I’m not one of the group, right?” Willie said softly. Flynn nearly broke free of Reggie’s hold in surprise.

“No!” she exclaimed.

“I’m not even a band manager,” he pointed out cheerfully, joining the group hug and practically forcing Flynn to snuggle back into Reggie’s grasp. “You pretty much run the show.”

“Stop it, I get it,” Flynn murmured. Luke and Alex piled on, and Flynn laughed. “Guys! Ok! I’m being stupid!”

“No, you’re not,” Reggie said. “You, Flynn, are being anxious, and that is totally fine once in a while but I refuse to let it go unhugged.”

“For once, Reggie’s got the right idea,” Alex said.

“Hey,” Reggie protested mildly.

“Ok, no sign of Bobby coming back, but Dad says – what’s going on here?”

The group hug awkwardly shifted around so everybody could look at Julie without actually letting go of Flynn.

“Uh,” Luke said.

“Ehhhhh,” Reggie and Alex chimed in.

“Alex was getting emotional, you know how he is,” Flynn said very seriously, knowing her face was still tear-stained.

“I am not,” Alex said with absolutely no conviction. Reggie let Flynn free one arm enough to give him a fist bump.

“Right,” Julie said. “Ok. And is… _Alex_ doing better?”

“Much,” Flynn said, with a glance up at him. “In fact… I think Alex knows what’s up with Bobby.”

“I do?”

“No, I do, it’s called humour and you should try it,” Flynn said, tugging away from the group hug.

“So what is up with Bobby?” Julie asked.

Flynn took a deep breath.

“The same thing that was up with me,” she said. “He doesn’t think he belongs, and we all spent last night telling him exactly that.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Pretty much any time Flynn almost admitted something about how she felt, and then backed off? Yeah, that's this.  
> The guys are still not really sure how they feel about the option of life being offered to one of them, as you can no doubt tell, but they do know they love their friends, and also that anxiety is a real jerk.  
> Next time: Carrie isn't privy to Flynn's revelation, but she has a pretty good foundation for that knowledge anyway given her own insecurities. Too bad the ghost she finds isn't Bobby.


	12. The Mean One

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Carrie is a terrible person, and at the moment she's proud of it.

Carrie had exhausted the list of places Luke had given her to look. The sun had risen, she was sure Flynn must be at Julie’s by now, and Carrie was wracking her brain, thinking of places her dad might go.

She didn’t know much about him.

Everywhere she associated with her dad, she associated with his career – not someplace sentimental to Bobby, just someplace Trevor Wilson liked to go for meetings or parties or other networking opportunities. The few _emotional_ locations she knew about were ones she’d shared with him. Way too late in life for Bobby to know about them.

There was one place, on the beach. Her dad had told her he’d had the most important meeting of his life there, and Carrie had always assumed he meant her mom. But the fact that he’d never said for sure meant there was a chance, and right now Carrie would take anything she could.

She arrived by the pier, still mostly empty in the weak morning sun, and looked around.

“Bobby?” Carrie called. _Please be here_. _Please._

“You know, you just missed him,” somebody said. Carrie whirled around, reaching for the pepper spray in the bottom of her purse.

That nightclub ghost, Caleb, was standing there. He raised his hands. Carrie’s eyes narrowed. She knew mockery when she saw it.

“It’s taken quite some time for me to figure you and your friend out,” he said. “Twenty-six years, as a matter of fact.”

Carrie refused to give him the pleasure of a response.

“Now, when your friend Flynn showed up, just an ordinary lifer with only traces of magic around her, I admit to being puzzled,” Caleb said. “It was something of a relief when I found out Ava’s little games were involved, after all, it could explain so much! And it meant dear Flynn was hardly the threat I feared she was, at least not yet. But you… You certainly have proven more elusive.”

“Skip the villain monologue and get to the point, I’m busy,” Carrie snapped.

He chuckled, like an indulgent “uncle” who thought he was Carrie’s favourite just because he wasn’t as creepy as the rest of the adults parading in and out of her dad’s life.

“I’m sure Julie’s told you how much stronger she is than me,” he said. “Promised you some kind of family, to make up for the one I’m sure you lost between our first meeting and now. You might even have believed her – with Flynn backing her up, those girls can be very convincing. But they don’t _really_ know how our world works. Who would you trust in the afterlife, Carrie? An experienced ghost, or two lifers who didn’t even know the magic they possessed until a handful of weeks ago?”

Carrie’s hand was still in her purse. She let go of her pepper spray – who even knew if it worked on ghosts – but her hand knocked against something else instead when she went to draw it out. Carrie glanced down.

It was the Instrument, still in her bag, days after she’d come back.

“You just want this,” Carrie said, holding it up. “Don’t you?”

Judging by the way Caleb’s jaw clenched, Carrie was right.

“You want to know about me, Caleb, here’s the truth,” Carrie said. “I don’t care what Julie could promise me. Or even Flynn. I’m the mean one. I’ve seen a lot of men like you, who think they never got enough love or money or fame in their prime and spend the rest of time afterwards making everyone else miserable because they’re jealous. You want to control everybody who might shine as much as you do, because you can’t handle the idea that you’re not as special as you thought.

“And the reason I know this, Caleb? I haven’t just seen people like you, I _am_ like you. Which is why you’ll believe me when I say, you want to stay on my good side. Julie, Flynn, Nick, the Phantoms – they don’t stoop very low to get things done. It’s all friendship and honesty over there. But I’m the one with the Instrument, because it knows that I have no problem whatsoever going back in time and destroying everything you cared about in life. You may be dead, Caleb, but there’s a lot of you left to ruin. So you’re going to tell me where my dad went, and I will take my nasty, selfish behaviour far away from you – unless you want me to make good on my threats. Because I will.”

“You wouldn’t,” he said.

Carrie juggled the Instrument from one hand to the other for a few seconds.

“You think I’m just one of Julie’s friends,” she said. “I’m her worst enemy. And the best part is, she’s so nice, you know she’d help me use this without even having to ask why.”

Caleb scowled.

“He really did leave,” he said. “I don’t know where.”

“Why can’t Julie find him?” Carrie demanded.

“You think I know?” he scoffed.

“I know you do.”

Carrie was incredibly satisfied with the way Caleb pulled himself upright, like a wall had sprung up in front of him. He looked Carrie up and down as she smugly folded her arms.

“I hid him from you,” he said. “But you already knew that.”

“Thank you, except not,” Carrie said. “Don’t let me catch you messing with me again.”

Caleb gave her a shallow smile and a sardonic little head nod, then disappeared. Carrie weighed her options. She could try to use that ghost sense, see if Bobby hadn’t disappeared too long ago for her to tell where he’d gone. She’d get the chance to talk to him alone, be the hero when she came back, and she wouldn’t have to depend on Julie.

But that was a big ‘if’ built into that idea. She sighed and put the Instrument away.

“Tell Julie to try and find him again,” she said when she arrived back at the studio. “And make it quick. Caleb’s the reason we couldn’t find him, and I wouldn’t trust him with a flour baby, let alone my dad.”

If Caleb was being honest – he rarely was, but with himself it did pay off at times – he’d been genuinely shaken by Carrie’s threat. The one thing he’d been able to count on since this whole disaster began was that none of his opponents were the type to truly hurt him. Carrie, though – he believed she really did know what made him tick. The idea of her threatening the cushy afterlife he’d enjoyed for so long, not just destabilising it as Julie had but actively taking it away from him altogether…

That simply could not stand.

Good thing Carrie had told him the ideal way to keep her out of his hair, then. He’d barely contained his glee when she let the word ‘dad’ slip. Caleb was hardly an expert in time travel, but he couldn’t imagine a girl who didn’t exist would be able to make her way in the world for long, ghost or not.

All he had to do was remove any chance of Bobby changing his future. Compared to an entire club full of ghosts, keeping one ghost under his thumb forever would be child’s play.

He found Bobby under the edge of the pier, standing in the water, just out of earshot of where Caleb and Carrie had been standing.

“Hello, Robert,” Caleb said. “It is… Robert Junior, isn’t it?”

Bobby stumbled back.

“What do you want?” he said, one hand wrapping around his wrist. Caleb smiled.

“I just want to talk,” he said. “You seem to have been… abandoned.”

Caleb’s cold read had been right on target, judging by the way Bobby jerked his head away from Caleb’s gentle, fatherly gaze. Nice to know Caleb hadn’t gotten rusty since his control over the club imploded.

“Leave me alone,” Bobby said.

“Oh, Bobby,” Caleb said with sickening overtones of fondness. “I can’t hurt you, remember? Let’s just… talk.”

Bobby glanced at Caleb – only for a second, but it was enough. He was hooked.

Time to begin, then.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Look. Look. You can be mean and still be a good person. Carrie is still Carrie, and I for one enjoy that.  
> What was this most important meeting, you may ask? Clearly it wasn't with Carrie's mom, since ghost!Bobby knew about it. I leave it up to your imaginations for now...  
> Things are getting wild with Caleb, who may have backed off of Carrie but still has plans for the Wilson family. I'm not sorry about this development at all, I'm very excited to write another temptation sequence. They're a lot of fun.  
> Next time, the aforementioned temptation sequence, and Ray Molina bringing in the lifer cavalry as he so often does. Look, he's the only one who can drive, what do you expect?


	13. To Matter to Somebody

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Caleb has a plan. Bobby has insecurities.

“I know you just want to turn me against Julie,” Bobby said. “You just want my soul.”

“I couldn’t take your soul if I _tried_ ,” Caleb said. “Your… _friend_ Julie made sure of that.”

“What was that?” Bobby snapped. At Caleb’s innocent little head shake, he scowled. “That, the way you said friend. Don’t talk about Julie like that.”

“My apologies,” Caleb said. “I merely thought it odd that you claim to have so many friends, but you’re out here all alone.”

“They know I needed time alone,” Bobby snapped. “Better than you.”

“Is that really what you want?” Caleb said. “You’re quite the staunch defender of your friends, aren’t you? Always ready to pick a fight on their behalf, but never willing to step up and confront _them_. It must be hard, knowing the depth of your love for them isn’t returned.”

“Shut up!” Bobby snapped, clenching his fists. “I know what you do. You’re not getting my soul, and you’re not getting my friends, and you’re not getting the Instrument.”

“Robert,” Caleb said. Bobby grimaced at the name. “I am well aware we’re not friends. I know, you’re far too strong-willed to accept that we ever could be. But at least we each know who we are to each other. Do you really want to spend the rest of eternity with people who lie to you? Who let you think you matter more to them than you do? We may not like each other, but you do have _value_ to me. I could teach you things. Maybe something to make you so important, you’d never be left behind again.”

“I don’t…”

Bobby didn’t want what Caleb could offer. He _didn’t_.

But god, he wanted to matter to somebody on _his_ terms for once.

If he said yes, would Luke and Julie and the others want him back?

“Bobby! Bro!”

Bobby nearly fell over when Luke wrapped his arms around Bobby, pulling him back away from Caleb. Alex stepped between them, glaring at Caleb. Reggie appeared by Bobby’s side, checking him over like he thought Caleb might have stabbed Bobby or something. Willie was there, too, a second later, gently laying a hand on Bobby’s shoulder.

“You,” a girl snarled. It was Carrie, pointing her finger in Caleb’s face, forcing him to step back. He nearly lost his balance in the incoming tide.

“You told me he left,” Carrie snapped. “You lied to me.”

“Are you surprised?” Caleb asked, spreading his hands.

“I’m surprised you’re this stupid,” Carrie snapped, plunging her hand into her bag. Caleb tried to grab for her arm, and she twisted out of his grip, holding the Instrument in one hand.

“The _only_ reason I’m not going back now is because I need magic to make this work,” she hissed. “Get away from my dad!” Caleb snarled, but he had no way of striking back and he knew it. He was gone in the next second.

Bobby felt like he’d been hit by a truck – or a Luke, really, if he was being accurate. Luke was still clinging to him with both arms and a leg, head twisted awkwardly around to look at where Caleb had been. Reggie had joined the hug by now, too. Alex turned to look at Bobby, worried.

“Dude, are you ok?” he asked.

“How… Where…”

Bobby had thought they wouldn’t come. It had taken them the whole night, after all.

“Dude,” Luke said. “Did you think we wouldn’t come?”

_Earlier_

“We have to find Bobby,” Luke said. “He can’t – he doesn’t really think he’s not one of us, right?”

“I’m pretty sure he does,” Flynn said. Luke opened his mouth, trying to think of a good rebuttal – it was Bobby! He had to know how much he meant to the rest of them, right? He was the _rhythm guitarist!_ – but he was interrupted by Carrie’s arrival.

“Tell Julie to try and find him again, and make it quick. Caleb’s the reason we couldn’t find him, and I wouldn’t trust him with a flour baby, let alone my dad.”

“Caleb?” Willie said, stiffening.

“What about Caleb?” Julie asked. Flynn grabbed her hand as Carrie launched into a brief account of her encounter with Caleb.

“You _threatened_ him?” Luke said. “And he backed off?”

“You’re surprised? I threatened to erase him from existence.” Carrie rolled her eyes. “This is so not important right now.”

“So Caleb stopped hiding Bobby,” Julie said. “You’re sure?”

“Well, it’s not like I have a magic sense but I don’t think he’d want to cross me after all that,” Carrie said. “Are you searching for him or what?”

Julie rolled her eyes, but she closed them without complaint. A minute later, she opened her eyes.

“He’s at the beach,” she said. “Under a pier.”

“What? But I…” Carrie scowled. “Caleb.”

“What pier?” Willie asked.

“Oh,” Luke said. “I forgot.”

Everyone stared at him.

“Luke?” Julie asked.

“I met Bobby when I was busking on the beach,” he said. “Not even really busking, just having a good time, you know? I mean, we were at school with each other but we never talked.”

“I forgot about that, too,” Reggie murmured. “Hey, you were practically bouncing when you said you found a rhythm guitarist!”

Carrie was staring at him, wide-eyed.

“We should go,” she said when their eyes met, looking away. “Now.”

“Julie…” Luke wasn’t sure what to do about her and Flynn. They couldn’t take the girls with them, after all.

“I’ll get my dad,” Julie said. “Go!”

Luke poofed away, and when he saw Bobby talking to Caleb, he did the only thing he could think of: cling to Bobby like he’d never let go.

Julie couldn’t stop herself from begging the car to go faster. Her dad glanced at her with worry in his eyes.

“I’m sure it’ll be fine,” he said. “Bobby’s a smart kid.”

“Bobby’s afraid he doesn’t matter,” Flynn said from the backseat. “You do all kinds of stupid things when that happens.”

“Flynn,” Julie said suddenly. “Are you – Do you –“

She didn’t know how to ask.

“I’m ok,” Flynn said. “I know I matter to you, Jules, I always have known. I just… felt a little isolated for a while. We’ve talked about it before, right?”

“Yeah,” Julie said quietly.

“Flynn,” Julie’s dad said softly. “I know there’s not a lot of reassurance a dad can provide, but… I’ve seen how much fun you have with your friends. I don’t often see the friends, but I see you and Julie. I have always been impressed by how much you all care about each other.”

“Thanks,” Flynn said. She smiled at him. “The guys already gave me a pep talk, I’m like. All pepped-out now. But I appreciate that you guys are helping, too.”

“So Bobby’s going through a hard time?” Julie’s dad asked.

“Well…” Julie glanced at Flynn. The whole Carrie thing was really confusing, and she’d been involved since Flynn and Carrie came back.

“He found out my friend Carrie is related to him,” Flynn said. “It’s… kind of freaking him out. And I think he’s worried that he was never really one of the guys.”

“Well,” Julie’s dad said. “You tell him, in the nicest way possible, that’s ridiculous.”

Julie and Flynn laughed.

“When I look at your band perform, I don’t see Julie and some rock band. I don’t see Julie and the Phantoms, and some random guy they hired to play whatever instrument belongs to the boy who’s feeling insecure today. And don’t think I haven’t noticed it’s not _just_ Bobby who does that to himself. You all make each other who you are, onstage and off. And while I think every single one of you would do wonderfully on their own, the things I see when you’re all together… It’s nice knowing Julie has more family than just Carlos, Victoria, and me.”

Julie pressed a hand to her mouth, trying not to cry. Why was her dad so _good_ at this?

“And, if you’re wondering, I stole about half of that speech from something your mom said to me once,” he added. “So I think she’d agree with me.”

“We’ll make sure Bobby knows,” Flynn said softly.

To Julie’s relief, her dad parked at the beach a few seconds later. She didn’t even wait for him to turn the car off before she was jumping out, Flynn right behind her.

“Bobby!” she shrieked, running as fast as she could in the sand. She could just make out a group of people standing by the edge of the pier, and she splashed into the water without even noticing the way it seeped into her shoes and socks.

“Bobby,” she said, taking in the scene. There was no sign of Caleb, but all her ghosts were here, and probably Carrie too. Flynn arrived a second later, panting.

“Is everybody ok?” Flynn asked.

“You guys came,” Bobby said.

“You’re our friend,” Julie said.

“Yeah,” Luke added, his chin planted firmly on Bobby’s shoulder. Julie smiled at the way he and Reggie had wrapped themselves around Bobby. “We’re just sorry it took so long.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter would have come out sooner but I got spent my morning trying to explain the time travel mechanics in this series to somebody who's never read any of it. My friends are... brave.  
> There's still a lot of talking left to do, but the worst has passed, and hugs are being had. I thought the temptation would be longer but honestly I made myself so sad with Bobby's pov that I had to make sure the ghost group arrived soon.  
> I also think I have played unforgivably fast and loose with the idea of driving through LA because from what I know of the place there is no way anybody drives anywhere fast enough for this chapter to play out right, but frankly I don't think most people care. If you're from LA and you do care, I apologise profusely. If you're from LA and you're just like "god i wish that was me with the teleporting car"... i respect you. Good luck with the car thing.  
> Next time, Carrie and Bobby finally talk. Flynn comes to a possibly belated realisation, though this one is way happier than her previous epiphany.


	14. Where We Belong

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Carrie has grown as a person. Flynn discovers that "grown as a person" is her type.

They finally retreated to the sand when Ray arrived, though nobody went far from Bobby’s side. Flynn hung back just a little, because it was still _weird_ , but she kept her gaze locked on him. Now that she knew what he was feeling… well, the stuff _Trevor_ had done was still terrible. But a lot of things about Bobby and Trevor, and even Carrie, made a lot more sense.

“I wasn’t gonna take his offer, I swear,” Bobby mumbled. Julie quietly updated her dad on the situation as Alex and Willie joined the group hug. “I’m fine. Guys, seriously, let me breathe.”

“Bro, you know you’re one of my best friends, right?” Luke said. “Like, if I ever made you feel like you weren’t as important as Alex or Reggie – Bobby, you’re in the band. That means you’re family. Ok?”

“Yeah,” Reggie said. “Man, the only reason we didn’t come after you the moment we realised something was wrong was because we couldn’t _find_ you.”

“We don’t want you to go,” Alex said softly. “We just don’t want you to miss out on life because of us.”

“Bobby,” Julie said as he finally managed to worm his way out of his friends’ grasp. She took his hands, looking solemn. “You’re my friend. You’ve been here for me through so many crazy things. I could _never_ think of you as less important than the others. Ok?”

He grinned at her.

“Ok,” he said.

“You have to let them change things back,” Julie said. “You know that, right?”

Bobby’s gaze dropped. Flynn sucked in a breath, glancing at Carrie, but Bobby just nodded.

“I know,” he said. He looked over at Carrie. “It’s just… a lot.”

Flynn elbowed Carrie.

“You should talk to him,” she whispered. Carrie shook her head, looking alarmed.

“What would I say?”

“Whatever you want to, Carrie, but you obviously need to talk.” When Carrie still looked hesitant, Flynn rolled her eyes and shoved Carrie forward. Julie smiled at Flynn, seeing the motion, and pulled her dad a few feet away. Willie nudged Alex, and together they gently steered Luke away. Reggie let out a little “Oh!” and followed.

“Well, they’re only slow on the uptake most of the time,” Carrie muttered. Flynn tried to back away, but Carrie looked over at her, panicked. With a nervous look at Bobby, Flynn stayed, trying to look like she wasn’t listening.

“Um,” Carrie said. “Look. It sucks that you got used to a life – or not-life, whatever – and now you can’t have it. Sorry, I guess, but I’m not, because you have a whole _life_ to live. And so do I! And I’m not gonna be nice about it, because I’m not Julie and if you are anything like me, which you obviously are in so many ways, you wouldn’t trust somebody who was nice. So here. From somebody who spends her entire life not sure who’s telling her the truth about what they want, I’m gonna be blunt.”

“Ok,” Bobby said. “Because right now you’re just telling me how you’re gonna tell me, and it’s blunt but not exactly helpful –“

“Shut up, I’m talking,” Carrie said. “You’re not my dad yet, I can say that to you and it’s not weird. You have a lot of bad stuff ahead of you, ok? Your friends died. You know that part. It’s hard. But you’re gonna get married, and have – have me. And a career. And a helicopter, if you want that! I don’t know, maybe that’s from your midlife crisis to-do list, I never asked.”

Flynn covered her mouth to stifle her laugh, and kept it there when she realised tears were slipping down Carrie’s face.

“I know it’s terrifying,” Carrie said. “I don’t know what I’d say if I were you. I mean, it’d suck to be a kid for eternity but at least you know what you’re in for, right? I know that I’m not… a great future to look forward to.”

“What? No, you’re cool,” Bobby said. “I mean. You’re mean, and kind of scary, and I’m pretty worried about you half the time? But it’s not… you that scared me.”

“It was the guys,” Carrie said. “Right? I think I missed something, but…” She glanced at Flynn, who nodded.

“Look, I know,” Carrie said. “The person I thought was my best friend literally forgot me, ok? I know. I grew up in a world where it was all about who I was for everybody else, and I thought nobody would ever understand. I thought everybody else belongs so easily.”

 _I want somebody to pick me_ , Carrie had said. Flynn swallowed, itching to reach out to her. They really were a lot alike, weren’t they?

“But I think, maybe, a lot of the people I admired most feel like that, too,” Carrie said, with a shy glance at Flynn. Flynn felt warm, and her heart started to beat faster.

Which meant either Flynn was sick, or something far worse was going on.

“I think maybe we’re all a little worried about where we belong, and who loves us,” Carrie said, just loud enough for her voice to reach Bobby and Flynn and no further. “So this is the moment you get to take with you, ok? Your band cares about you. But so do I. And I am asking you to care about me, _please_.”

“I do,” Bobby said softly. “Carrie, I – this is really weird. But I do want you to be able to live your life. Ok?”

“Ok,” Carrie said. “Good. If either of you ever repeats any of that to another soul, living or dead, you won’t have the chance at being a ghost because I will send you straight to hell.”

“Can’t send me straight anywhere,” Flynn pointed out. “I only go lesbian to places.”

It was, as covers go, a pretty good one to hide the fact that Flynn was pretty sure she was crushing on Carrie, and _hard_.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> heyyyyyy some gay and family softness for you all. I made myself cry over Bobby's first scene last time so now I'm making myself good cry over all the growth happening here.  
> I hope this can provide everyone who needs it with some positive emotions, some distraction, whatever you can get from this. I know I write stories with lots of inherent angst, but... it's the healing and the growth and the hugs from here on out, even with the sadness. the kids deserve that, all of us deserve that, what can I say.  
> Next time, a goodbye. Again - bittersweet, but soft. We're all about that love now.


	15. Back to My Life

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The band breaks up, just a little.

Julie watched Carrie and Bobby talking, feeling a little like she was still standing in the water, getting pulled around by the tide. Instead of her friend, Bobby was meant to be… what, the father of her friend? Julie still wasn’t sure how she and Carrie fit together. She wasn’t sure Carrie or Flynn knew anymore, from the way they’d been the past couple days.

“I’m gonna miss him,” Reggie said quietly.

“Only if we actually go back with them,” Alex pointed out. Julie stepped closer to Luke, reaching for his hand, as Reggie laid his head on Luke’s shoulder.

“We’d miss him no matter what, he’s one of us,” Luke said, clearly trying not to cry.

“I know,” Alex said, hunching his shoulders. “That’s – that’s not what I meant.”

Luke’s fingers flexed around Julie’s. He nudged Reggie around to stand between him and Julie and lifted up his newly freed arm. Alex let Luke wrap his arm around Alex’s shoulders without a word.

“We’ll be ok, boys,” Luke said. He glanced at Julie over the top of Reggie’s lowered head. She smiled at him.

“Yeah, we will,” she said. “And we have to give Bobby the best goodbye.”

“We do not have enough time to throw a going-away party, we need to fix this before Caleb comes up with a new plan,” Reggie said sulkily.

“I think he’ll probably be happy with a really good group hug,” Willie pointed out gently. “And they’re coming over.”

“Julie,” her dad whispered. “I know I don’t know everything that’s going on, but – you’re saying goodbye to Bobby?”

Julie nodded, blinking back tears.

“He’s, uh… moving on,” she said, which was the truth even if it didn’t get into the details.

“ _Mija,_ I’m sorry,” her dad murmured, rubbing her shoulder. “Do you and the others want a minute alone?”

Julie nodded.

“Tell Bobby I said thank you,” Julie’s dad said. “I know you’ve all been through a lot the past few months, but I will always be grateful for the way your band has helped you.”

“I’ll let him know,” Julie said. Her dad held out his finger, and she gladly wrapped hers around it. With a tug, he was gone, heading back up the beach to the car. Julie turned to face Bobby, who had stopped a few feet away, hands in his pockets, eyeing the group with an unreadable expression. Carrie stood a few feet behind him, gripping her elbow with her other hand.

Flynn came up to Julie, wrapping her arm around Julie’s shoulders.

“I’m sorry,” Flynn whispered.

“It’s ok,” Julie said. She’d meant it, after all, when she said she’d accepted the eventual loss of the guys. She just never thought it would go down quite so soon, or quite like this.

“So,” Bobby said. “I guess I’m leaving the band.”

“Bro,” Luke said, letting go of everybody else and rushing forward to hug Bobby again. “You’re always part of the band.”

“That means we’ll miss you, and good luck,” Alex advised as he joined the hug.

“What is it with you and saying what I’m saying today?” Luke asked.

“Well, you’re really overdoing it with the band metaphors, and _we_ just found out that apparently those don’t get across so well,” Alex observed.

“Alex, man, I’m pretty sure Luke doesn’t even think of them as metaphors,” Bobby laughed.

“Yeah, the band is literal,” Luke said. Julie laughed in spite of herself.

“Dude, I’m really gonna miss you,” Reggie said as he bounced forward and threw himself into the hug. Now it was a true Sunset Curve group hug, with Julie, Willie, Flynn, and Carrie on the outside. Julie tried not to think about what it was like in the world without Bobby, especially before she could touch the guys. Had their hugs always been just a little off-kilter?

“Nah, you guys’ll be busy with Julie, taking over the world with your music,” Bobby said. “And I will have already taken _over_ the world first, so that’s pretty cool.”

“Ehhh,” Luke said. “I mean, she said you’re famous but could you really compare to Julie and the Phantoms?”

Julie winced, worried that his words might hit at Bobby’s insecurities, but he just laughed and turned his head, meeting Julie’s gaze from the depths of the group hug.

“Never,” he said. “Hey, Jules, come here.”

The huddle opened up, and Julie wormed her way in between Reggie and Bobby.

“Remember what I said to you when we met?” he said teasingly.

Julie grinned, pretending to think hard about it.

“You mean when you told me I was in your house and I shouldn’t have put butterflies all over the walls?”

“Ok, no,” Bobby said. “The other part.”

“That you have to let Luke _think_ he’s in charge?” Julie said.

“Wait, what?” Luke asked as Alex and Reggie laughed.

“Ok, not that either. You’re killing me here, Julie.”

Julie ducked her head, her smile softening.

“I remember. It’s not about the instrument, or the notes, it’s the people you play with.”

“And then you looked like you wanted to murder me, because in retrospect that was a terrible thing to say to somebody whose mom just died,” Bobby said. “But yeah. Just… promise me you’ll keep playing with them, as long as you can?”

“Of course,” Julie said. That would have been her answer no matter what, she _loved_ the band, but she got the feeling that question was more for Bobby’s sake than hers.

“No, hang on, can we go back to – to the thing about me?” Luke asked.

“I think you got it pretty well the first time,” Julie said. They finally pulled apart to let Bobby and Willie exchange a last fist-bump-turned-hug, which was also one of very few hugs Julie had ever seen them exchange. She reached for Flynn’s hand, and Flynn bumped her shoulder against Julie’s with a fond smile.

“I know you don’t… remember me,” Bobby said to Flynn. “But you were a good friend, from my perspective.”

“Yeah, you just want the magic of a Flynn Original Hug, bring it in,” Flynn said, opening her arms wide. Bobby grinned and wrapped his arms around her, and Flynn patted him gently on the back a few times before letting him go.

“We should do it soon,” Julie said. “The time travel. Like Reggie said, we don’t want Caleb coming up with a new plan, and Flynn has to go home for family night. And… I think it should just be Flynn and Carrie and Bobby.”

“Julie,” Bobby protested.

“If a whole bunch of us go we risk things getting even messier,” Julie said. “And we can’t play with Carrie’s existence like that.”

Nobody argued with her, though nobody seemed happy about it. Julie couldn’t blame them.

“But then… none of you will remember,” Flynn said. “You won’t remember Bobby being here. Or everything Carrie’s done for us!”

Carrie looked positively starstruck at the mention of her name.

“So you’ll just have to tell us everything when you get back,” Julie said. “I’m sure the guys wouldn’t mind catching up with Bobby, even if it is a little weird.”

Flynn and Carrie glanced at each other. Julie raised her eyebrows, impressed. She’d never before seen Flynn hold a silent conversation like that with anybody but her.

“Yeah,” Flynn said. “We’ll have a lot to tell you.”

“Are we really doing this now?” Carrie asked. “I mean, I’m ready to get back to my life, but like… this feels sudden.”

“It’s one specific moment and we’ve been putting it off for like a week, Carrie, I don’t think that’s sudden,” Flynn said drily. “You have the Instrument?”

“I don’t think I could get rid of it if I wanted to,” Carrie said, pulling it out of her bag. She held it out, and Bobby laid his hand on top of it.

“Oh my god, Julie, we never did the – the training montage thing! I have no idea what I could do for magic or anything, and I don’t think –“

“Flynn!” Julie cut her off quickly. “Listen.”

The Instrument was rumbling, just barely, but it grew louder as Flynn took a step towards Carrie.

“I could see Carrie, since after Caleb left,” Julie said. “I think that was you.”

“Ok,” Flynn said. “Ok, but we are so going to sit down and figure out how this works because I don’t even know if there are _any_ rules anymore.”

“Go!” Julie said, laughing slightly.

“Oh my god, fine! I’m going!” Flynn said, and then she, Carrie, and Bobby were gone.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Did I have a sudden expansion of Flynn's magic solely because I wrote this entire chapter and then realised Julie can't see Carrie? Maybe a little. Flynn is overflowing with love, and that's my excuse.  
> (also, like, it's not super wild because Julie would not have been able to touch Carrie had she tried, but it would be a weird moment for Julie and Carrie to touch so... trust me. my rules are mostly sensible.)  
> Anyway, we got some goodbyes and a little moment to know what Julie and Bobby's friendship was like, and now it's coming to a close. Three chapters left, I believe? Still very much about that gentle finish, I promise. I do not want you all living in fear anymore, the sadness is enough to handle.  
> Next time: Our trio of time travellers figures out a plan for saving Bobby. Also, maybe, a plan for dinner on some future Saturday.


	16. The Sheer Gay Panic of It All

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Flynn and Carrie short-circuit. Bobby is having the worst third-wheel experience of his life, and he's friends with Luke.

The first thing Flynn became aware of was the smell. The second was a voice, saying something about ice cream.

“Flynn,” Carrie hissed, staring wide-eyed past her down the alley they’d found themselves in. “Flynn, that’s _you._ ”

“I’m going to guess this is a bad thing,” Bobby muttered.

“Oh, no,” Flynn said. She’d thought of her first trip to the Orpheum, which meant some part of her had thought of her time beforehand, when she’d basically cried all over Reggie. “Did they see us?”

“No,” Carrie said. Flynn turned to look, and Carrie grabbed her shoulder, forcing her to keep looking at Carrie. “Do not! If you make eye contact, we’re really doomed. He’s looking down the street.”

“Just a few blocks from the Orpheum,” Reggie-from-the-past-but-also-the-future said. (Flynn hated time travel a little more with each new tense she had to make up.)

“Let’s go, then,” past-future-mostly-past Flynn said. Now-Flynn pressed a little closer to Carrie, reaching up to the other girl’s face. Carrie stiffened.

“Should I leave you two alone, or…” Bobby asked.

“Hide your face in case we look around!” Flynn whispered furiously to Bobby. It wasn’t like she _wanted_ to be this close to her brand new crush who was also an old enemy.

Flynn waited, pretending her heart was only beating fast because of the near miss and not because Carrie was right there. Carrie looked at her, and Flynn was close enough she could hear Carrie breathe in.

“They’re gone,” Carrie said.

Flynn sighed.

“Are you planning to keep touching my face, or…”

Flynn snatched her hand away, embarrassed.

“Sorry,” Flynn said.

“It’s fine,” Carrie replied, which made no sense.

“Seriously? I cradle your face like a complete weirdo, and you’re fine with it? You can’t handle getting the wrong brand of water.”

“They have different flavours!” Carrie protested. “Look, just – you can touch me. Whatever.”

Flynn could _see_ the moment Carrie regretted saying that. Carrie crossed her arms, scowling at Flynn.

“Look, if we want to talk about people being weird,” she said, which Flynn really hadn’t, “you’re the one who touched my face in the first place. You could’ve just spun me around. I know you’d be happy not to look at my face any more than you have to.”

Flynn, never one to lose an argument with Carrie, burst out, “Well, maybe you’re wrong and I like your face!”

“What?” Carrie said.

“What?” Flynn said, smiling to cover up the sheer gay panic of it all.

“I can’t believe this is the time you’ve picked for this conversation,” Bobby said, further giving Flynn the sense that this was actually the guy who grew up to become Carrie’s father.

“You like my face?” Carrie said.

“That… was out of context.”

“The context you said it in was out of context? That context?” Carrie repeated.

“I don’t have to – you – how do I know you don’t like my face?” Flynn said, which was possibly the worst comeback she had ever said.

“I do,” Carrie blurted out indignantly, looking as though she regretted it just as much as Flynn regretted her initial statement about Carrie’s face.

“What?” Flynn asked.

Bobby groaned.

“Look, I don’t want to make assumptions, and this is really weird considering one of you is apparently my future kid, but can I just… this is going exactly like when Alex and Luke started dating, and when Luke figured out he liked Reggie, so can we skip to the end?”

Flynn slowly put together the implications of what he had just said.

“We’re – I’m not…” Flynn said.

“Flynn wouldn’t be interested in me,” Carrie said.

“What? You wouldn’t date me,” Flynn said.

“I would!” Carrie snapped. “You’re the one who’s too good for me!”

Flynn gaped at her.

“Carrie,” she said. “Um. Do you like me?”

“No!” Carrie snapped. She looked horrified. “I mean. Do you?”

Flynn was very tempted to say no, but also she had a feeling they’d be stuck short-circuiting forever if she did.

“Yes,” Flynn said. Carrie stared at her, perfectly lined eyes blinking owlishly in a way that was so endearing it annoyed Flynn. The sheer audacity of this girl to be cute when she was actively tormenting Flynn!

“Oh,” Carrie said. “Because I kind of like you too.”

“Finally,” Bobby said, flinging his hands in the air. “Can we go save me, now?”

“Oh my god, Bobby,” Flynn said, remembering why they were there. “Carrie, come on!”

“What, now this is my fault?” Carrie snapped as they started to run.

The one good thing about Flynn and Carrie’s disaster episode was it had given past-Flynn and Reggie enough of a head start, so Flynn didn’t run into herself as they hurried into the Orpheum. Flynn quickly spotted herself with Julie, Reggie, and Willie, watching the stage.

“This is so weird,” Bobby said.

“Yeah, wait until adult you shows up,” Flynn said. “I mean. He probably showed up, right? Luke and Alex did.”

Neither Bobby nor Carrie looked like they had an answer to that.

“What do we do?” Carrie asked. “How do we do this without you or Julie or the others seeing us?”

“They wouldn’t remember you, right?” Flynn asked. “Because this is the alternate timeline still. Bobby ate the hot dog here, so they don’t remember you.”

“Is that how it works?” Carrie asked.

“I don’t know, I’m making it up!” Flynn said. “But you’re probably our best bet.”

“To do what?” Carrie asked. Flynn bit her lip, looking around.

“Rose,” Bobby said. “In the original timeline, she distracted me, right? I mean, even if I’m not about to flirt with her, I bet I’d talk to her long enough.”

“Right,” Flynn said. She’d almost forgotten the bartender was Julie’s mother. God, their lives were convoluted even before all the time travel. “So… we just… ask her?”

“I don’t think Bobby or I can,” Carrie said. “Ghost, remember?”

Flynn had actually _not_ remembered.

“Great,” she said. “There’s only two versions of me here who are both visible to everybody. No big deal. Here I go.”

Carrie took her hand. When Flynn looked at her, their alleyway conversation replaying in her mind on a panicked loop, she offered a small smile.

“Look, if nobody can see me, and nobody remembers me probably,” she said. “There’s no point in you going alone, right?”

“You realise that now that you’ve done this, I _will_ be making you come with me to every event that makes me even mildly uncomfortable?”

Carrie looked surprised, and for a moment Flynn was afraid she’d gone too far. Then she smiled.

“I can maybe live with that,” she said. “As long as some of those are my shows.”

Flynn didn’t screech, but it was a near thing. This was actually happening. In the _nineties_. Her life was so weird.

“I’m also going to come so I can make sure Rose knows what to say to keep me there,” Bobby said, staring at them like he was afraid they’d transform into monsters or something. “Please don’t be weird in my presence. I’m increasingly aware of the fact that Carrie’s supposed to be my kid.”

Carrie looked mortified. Flynn tried not to laugh.

“Let’s do this,” Flynn said.

She was so ready to finally go home.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Me, crying over my own fic: she just implied that it's not home without Carrie!!!  
> anyway.  
> I'm sorry Flynn and Carrie are such disasters, I genuinely did not think it would go down like this and then they. Did that. Poor Bobby, honestly.  
> Do I know whether our Phantom Singular era heroes would recognise Carrie? uhhhhhh I don't think they would? there's layers upon layers of au here and I think at this point it's a paradox so don't think about it too hard, it won't actually come up, I promise all the mechanics that are actually in this series are (mostly) thought-out and logical. I spent hours tormenting my friend to make sure. I promise.  
> And last thing, sorry there were no literal dinner plans made as I promised last time (they were meant to be figurative dinner plans when I mentioned them but I do not wish to confuse) but I hope the existence of the confession makes up for that.  
> Next time: Rose learns the game plan. Rose executes the game plan. Flynn and Carrie get to go home.


	17. I Trust You

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The last last time at the Orpheum.

“Rose?” Flynn asked as she approached the bar. Rose frowned as she looked Flynn over.

“Are you friends with…” Rose glanced up towards the stage. Her eyes widened when she saw the other Flynn.

“I can explain,” Flynn said quickly. Rose glanced back at her, then at the stage.

“You’re one of the girls who needed my help,” she said. “Those are the guys you needed me to use magic on, which means… something else went wrong?”

“I’m really glad you’re good at this,” Flynn said with feeling. “Um…”

She wasn’t sure how to ask this, really. How much should she tell Rose?

Carrie squeezed Flynn’s hand.

“This is going to sound insane,” Flynn said. “But also you know how insane our lives are, I guess. So. We’re gonna need you to talk to Bobby. For a while.”

Rose laughed.

“Bobby?” she said. “That’s… which one was that?”

“Rhythm guitarist,” Flynn said. “Black hair. Really proud of himself for the whole ‘let me hold my guitar by my face’ thing?”

“Hey,” Bobby protested. Carrie giggled.

“Right,” Rose said. “Why do you need to distract him?”

Flynn swallowed. How did she explain that they needed to make sure only three people died that night? From Rose’s perspective, she would be saving Bobby at the expense of the others.

“Rose, please,” Flynn said. “Carrie… She really needs you to do this.”

Rose frowned.

“Is something bad going to happen?” she asked. Then she shook her head. “You can’t tell me, can you?”

“I don’t want things to get even worse,” Flynn said.

Rose still looked worried, but she didn’t press.

“How do I keep him here, then?” she asked. “I don’t know if small talk would work too well.”

Flynn glanced at Bobby.

“I taught guitar lessons,” he said. “If she asked me about the kids, I wouldn’t shut up.”

“Wait,” Carrie said. “You taught?”

“Yeah, I figured I’d be a teacher someday, in between band stuff or after it ended… I didn’t go into teaching?”

Flynn hadn’t known Carrie’s dad had any interest in teaching, but the way he’d been around her and Julie made a lot of sense now. He liked kids, she knew that.

And he’d still picked becoming Trevor Wilson over that?

“I… I guess you were busy,” Carrie said.

Flynn swallowed and relayed the information to Rose, who smiled at that.

“That’s cool,” she said. “Now that is a conversation I wouldn’t mind getting caught up in. I give piano lessons on the weekend, we’ll have a lot to talk about.”

That part Flynn had known. She’d taught Julie, and she’d taught Flynn the basics. Flynn took a deep breath, glancing up at the stage as the song ended.

“We should go,” Flynn said. “Rose – thank you. I’m sorry.”

“I’ll make sure I forget you again,” Rose promised her. “You’re sure this will work?”

Flynn looked to Carrie, who shrugged, and then over to Bobby – but he wasn’t there anymore.

“I think it’ll work,” Flynn said.

“Where did he go?” Carrie hissed as Flynn towed her away. A glance over Flynn’s shoulder told her that Rose was waving to Sunset Curve, drawing Bobby’s attention, and Flynn sighed in relief.

“This happened to adult Luke and Alex,” she said. “I think it’s because they’re not the same? Like. Bobby is a ghost, and your dad is an adult lifer.”

“I’m still like this, though,” Carrie said, waving her hand through the wall to demonstrate.

“So let’s go home, and find out,” Flynn said. “This is all we can do here.”

“Ok,” Carrie said. She took a shaky breath. “Ok. I trust you.”

“Wait, seriously?” Flynn blurted, like an absolute disaster. She was really doing great today.

“Does that seem like the kind of lie I’d say?” Carrie asked. She pulled out the Instrument and offered it to Flynn. That tiny, low hum started up. Flynn hesitated.

“It’s going to be really weird to go back now,” she said. “Julie and the guys won’t remember, but I think maybe your dad will. Even that’s a guess. Are you ok, just having this kind of secret with me?”

Carrie frowned.

“Does it have to be a secret?” she asked.

Flynn smiled, filled with relief she didn’t know she needed.

“No,” Flynn said, reaching for Carrie’s hand. “I guess it doesn’t.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A quick one today, a looooong wrap-up for closure tomorrow. Rose saves the day, but also we all know she's going to be very upset when she finds out exactly what that day-saving entails... sorry, Rose, for looping you into the trauma circuit with everybody.  
> I owe the "Bobby wants to teach" thing to Annaelle, whose fics I must admit I have never read but who consistently has provided me with helpful thoughts to enhance the angsty gut punches I like to provide you all with. As a teacher myself, I am especially sad about this now. You're all welcome.  
> Next time, closure: Trevor Wilson talks to his daughter, and he talks to his old friends. Flynn takes a stand, and Carrie makes a choice.  
> (Julie is just incredibly confused.)


	18. Family Weekend

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Closure, in varying forms.

Carrie reappeared in her house, alone. It was _her_ house, huge windows and enormous couch with that one stain from Carrie’s hot chocolate spill three years ago.

So somewhere upstairs was her dad, then.

She looked up at the sound of feet pounding on the stairs, and her breath caught in her throat when she saw her dad standing there. _Her_ dad, not Bobby, the person who’d taught her to cook the few things she could and who woke her up by singing loudly and who legitimately thought first aid classes were a good father/daughter bonding experience.

“Carrie,” he said.

“Dad,” she said.

“I… I think I had a dream,” he said.

“About Sunset Curve?” Carrie asked. “And Flynn and Julie?”

The colour drained from his face.

“Carrie,” he said again. “Baby. I – I am so sorry.”

Carrie had been expecting excuses about his plagiarism, or an explanation as to why he’d never told her about the band. She took a step back, surprised.

“Sorry?” she repeated.

“Carrie, honey, if I’d been given that choice now I wouldn’t have needed a moment to help you,” he said, hurrying down the last few steps and reaching for her shoulders. “You are… more important to me than any music career. That version of me – he was scared. But I hope you know that you are… Carrie, you are what I am proudest of, and I would choose you every time.”

Carrie flung herself into his arms, partially for a hug and partially to hide her tears.

“So you remember it?”

His grip on her tightened.

“Like a dream,” he said. “The – the others. Luke, Alex, Reggie, they’re really…”

“You saw them at the Orpheum with Julie,” Carrie reminded him.

“Yeah,” he said. “I did.”

Carrie took a step back.

“Do you want to go talk to them?” she asked quietly.

He laughed. There was a bitter edge to it.

“Somehow I doubt they’d want to hear from me,” he said.

“I think it’s probably worse if you never say anything,” Carrie said slowly.

“They wouldn’t forgive me.”

Carrie thought about Flynn, who’d admitted to liking her after everything she’d done. She thought about Willie, who’d almost caused the guys to lose their souls and still gotten a boyfriend out of it all. She thought about Nick, still trying to be her friend.

“Maybe,” she said. “Maybe not. But I don’t think they’d be upset if you gave them some closure.”

Her dad touched her cheek gently, studying her face.

“When did you get so smart?” he said softly.

“Really recently,” Carrie muttered. “On a related note, I’m a lesbian and I maybe have a girlfriend now?”

Her dad laughed.

“I… do remember that. Though I think we both wish I didn’t.”

“At least it takes the mystery out of coming out,” Carrie muttered.

Her dad started to get ready to leave, pausing when he saw Carrie hadn’t done the same.

“You don’t want to come?” he asked gently.

“They don’t know me,” she said. “Except through Julie. And I need to figure out what kind of apology I can make to her before I say anything.”

He brushed a few hairs back from her face and kissed her forehead.

“I wish you hadn’t had to grow up in that situation,” he said. “But you have grown up so much. And I am proud.”

“Stop stalling and go,” Carrie said fondly.

As her dad left to finally get closure, Carrie’s phone buzzed.

_So I’m back just in time for family night_

_But we should talk_

Carrie barely had a moment to freak out before Flynn texted her a third time.

_Good talk! good talk I swear_

Carrie smiled, tapping out an answer and letting her thumb hover over the send button.

 _Let’s talk whenever you get the chance,_ she sent, hitting the button quickly before she could change her mind.

Carrie had two minutes of heart-pounding silence, trying to convince herself it was ok and Flynn was just busy with family, before she got a text back.

It was a single orange heart emoji.

“Well,” Carrie said. “You’re definitely still Flynn.”

If she held the phone close to her heart for a minute, nobody was there to know.

It had been a long time since Trevor was last here. He looked around at the yard, remembering what he’d grown up with and what Rose and Ray had changed.

And what he’d grown used to in another world.

No matter how long he put this off, it wouldn’t get any easier. He approached the house with heavy feet and knocked on the door.

Ray answered the door.

“Trevor,” he said.

Trevor tried for a smile.

“Ray,” he said. “I… well, if we’re being honest I was hoping to talk to Julie’s band.”

If he’d doubted that this version of Ray knew as much about ghosts as the version his ghost self had known, the flash of alarm on Ray’s face set that question to rest.

“Well, they’re Swedish, actually, and the time zones –“

“Ray,” Trevor interrupted gently. “I know who they are. I used to be in a band with them.”

He may have just tipped his hand when it came to the plagiarism – he had no idea what Julie and the others might have told Ray about Trevor’s past – but Ray just nodded.

“All right,” he said. “Wow. I – I’m so sorry.”

Trevor smiled, but he was sure it looked uneasy. He had never forgotten the deluge of insincere well-wishes after the Orpheum, and he’d never really wanted to hear another unhelpful apology again, even from a friend.

“I’ll go get Julie,” Ray said.

“You don’t have to –“ Trevor cut in hastily, but Ray just shook his head at him with a smile.

“You won’t be able to see them without her,” he said. “Unless you have some ghost magic I don’t know about?”

Trevor forced a laugh and shook his head. Not in this world, he didn’t.

“Do you want to come in? Or would you rather wait in the studio?”

Trevor hadn’t been in the studio since the night Sunset Curve died. He’d lugged the last of the instruments inside, tucked them all away in corners he’d never have to see, and refused to set foot there again.

“I’ll wait out there,” he said.

Ray smiled at him sadly, as though he knew what Trevor was feeling.

He probably did.

Trevor slowly opened the studio doors, finally looking at the way it had changed over the years. Rose had kept the couch, and his friends’ instruments, but little else was the same. Posters had turned to butterflies and plants. A grand piano sat by the windows, and Trevor smiled, thinking about when Carrie was little and Rose had taught her to play.

He’d forgotten he wanted to do the same until now, with the memory of his teenage self fresh in his mind.

The doors slammed. Trevor whipped around, but he couldn’t see anybody.

One of the guys, then. Trevor swallowed.

“Gonna give me another wet willie?” he said loudly. A discordant _thunk_ came out of the piano. Trevor could just imagine the way the guys would hiss at each other in panic.

“I just want to talk,” Trevor said. “I… I’m sorry.”

Another surprised chord. The door opened, and Julie poked her head in.

“Hi,” she said warily. Trevor’s chest ached, looking at this girl who had been his friend’s daughter and his daughter’s friend, and for one dreamlike week his friend, too. Julie had done far better by his best friends than he had, and now she didn’t even trust him.

He deserved that, he supposed, but it hurt to confront the fact anyway.

“I have a feeling you know why I’m here,” he said.

Julie crossed her arms.

“What makes you think the guys will want to hear anything you have to say?” she said.

Trevor didn’t really have anything he could say to that. He avoided her gaze.

“I don’t know,” he said. “But I know now…”

“That they’re ghosts?” Julie finished.

“No,” Trevor said, almost laughing. “I know that I was their friend, and that makes everything I did a lot worse. Please, boys… Can we talk?”

Julie glanced around the room. Whatever she saw or heard must have been some kind of ‘yes’ because she headed for the piano, playfully bumping her hip into thin air when she reached the bench. Trevor imagined Reggie scrambling out of the way.

Trevor’s heart clenched when Julie started to play. That was “Bright,” the last song they’d ever worked on and one of the only ones he’d been able to say no to recording. He should have remembered Luke gave it to Julie. Even if he hadn’t, he should have guessed.

She didn’t sing, instead choosing to work her way through the piano part. Just when Trevor thought the others might refuse to play out of spite, the bass came in and Reggie was there, as close to Julie as the cord and amp would allow, watching Trevor with the same wariness he’d seen in Julie.

Trevor’s guilt grew. One of the things he’d admired most about Reggie was how trusting he was, when he had plenty of reasons to be uneasy around certain people.

He’d never imagined Reggie not trusting _him_.

Then again, he never imagined having to talk to the guys about what he’d done.

Alex came in next, only a measure after Reggie, probably so Reggie wouldn’t have to face Trevor alone. Trevor eyed his two old friends, stunned by how much like an old photo album they were. He’d known, of course. He’d seen them. But talking to them, not as an equal but as an adult man who’d screwed them over?

There were a lot of things Trevor was never going to get back, and he was beginning to realise how many of them he could’ve had if he’d just been a better person in his grief.

“Luke,” Julie said softly as they reached the chorus. Quietly, sullenly, the guitar came in.

Trevor covered his mouth, trying to hold back tears. Luke glared at him.

“What do you want to say?” he asked.

Trevor coughed, lowering his hand. What did he want to say? A lot.

What could he say that wouldn’t hurt the band worse, though? Possibly nothing.

“I’m sorry,” he said. He laughed bitterly, avoiding Luke’s gaze by looking at the chairs on the ceiling. Such a Rose way to decorate. “I could tell you why I did it, if you want. But I don’t want you thinking I’m trying to excuse myself, because there is no excuse and I know that. I knew it then.”

“Then why did you do it? Why’d you steal our songs?” Luke snapped. “If you knew it was wrong why would you do it at all?”

“Because nobody wanted to buy a tragedy,” Trevor said, reciting the same words record execs had spouted at him when he’d been too young and stupid to fight back. “They just wanted to gossip about it. And with all I was seeing, that seemed true.”

“What do you mean?” Reggie asked, taking a step closer to Trevor.

“I watched you die,” Trevor said. There was no point in sugarcoating something these kids had already had to face down from multiple angles. Still, Julie missed a note, and Reggie looked like he was going to be sick. Trevor frowned, and added more gently, “That was all anybody knew Bobby for. It wasn’t exactly the kind of fame I wanted, and I didn’t think it was the kind you wanted either.”

“You didn’t think releasing _my_ songs as mine would overshadow that a little?” Luke said.

“I was seventeen, Luke, when you’re that age you _don’t_ think,” Trevor snapped. He sighed, rubbing his eyes. “I’m sorry. That wasn’t fair.”

“So now what?” Alex asked. “I mean, you’ve had your big change of heart, are you going to tell the truth? Tell our parents the truth? What?”

Trevor honestly didn’t know, and he said so.

“Great,” Alex scoffed. Reggie turned away in disgust, and Luke… well, Luke just continued to glare at him.

“If it was just me, then yes, I’d tell the whole world,” Trevor said. “But I won’t let Carrie be remembered for a lie her dad told.”

Julie’s chords grew quieter. He looked over at the piano to see her frowning down at it.

Clearly Carrie and Flynn weren’t the only ones who had complicated feelings about their former trio.

“Look,” Trevor said, trying to find something that he could still offer, knowing that he was still falling far short of what he needed to do to even begin making this up to them. “If there’s anything I can do, meetings or introductions I can set up, to record or perform or anything… Just tell me what you want.”

“I want my music back,” Luke said. With one last vicious strum of his guitar, he stopped playing, winking out of sight a second later.

“Dude,” Reggie said softly. He looked at Trevor, then set his bass down, disappearing as well.

“Why didn’t you ever go to Luke’s parents?” Julie asked quietly.

Trevor met her eyes. He wondered how much she knew about Luke’s family life.

“He ran away,” he said simply. Julie shook her head.

“But he still loved them. He wanted to go back. Luke said you guys played ‘Unsaid Emily,’ you know what his parents mean to him!”

Trevor sighed, unsure how to explain. He and Julie had both grown up with good parents, happy relationships in their homes – but she’d seen examples of good parents her whole life, and Trevor, for whatever he was worth. He’d only seen bad examples outside his own life. It had taken his own experience raising Carrie for him to realise that sometimes even a kind, loving parent could fall far short of the mark, and by then it was too late for anything he could say to Mitch and Emily.

“When I still had the chance to say anything without making it hurt more,” he said slowly. “I didn’t know what it would mean. When I figured it out… It was too late.”

“There’s no such thing as too late,” Julie said with conviction. Trevor smiled at her.

“I hope you’re right,” he said. He looked at Alex, still keeping time. “Is there anything left that I can say?”

Alex shook his head, but he kept playing.

“For what it’s worth, Bobby,” he said quietly. “I hope you’re serious. Because we missed you, and even hating you hasn’t changed that.”

Trevor closed his eyes against the tears that threatened to fall, and he nodded.

“I’ll go,” he said. “Thank you all. For hearing me out.”

“Trevor?” Julie called tentatively just as he was about to step outside. He turned to look at her, confused.

“How’s Carrie doing?” Julie said, looking as though she regretted saying it immediately.

Trevor smiled at the thought of his daughter, seemingly transformed overnight from a troubled rich girl to a person who was actively trying to grow and be kind. He knew the truth of it, and he had no doubt Julie would soon, as well, so he only said, “She’s making an effort.”

Julie didn’t look like she knew what to make of that, but it really wasn’t Trevor’s story to tell, so he smiled at her, said goodbye, and left.

Family night turned into family weekend, much to Flynn’s annoyance, and she didn’t get a chance to really talk to Julie or Carrie until Monday morning. She’d exchanged a few texts with both of them – apparently Carrie’s dad had tried to talk to the guys? At least they were getting closure – but hadn’t managed to steal enough time to define a relationship or explain everything to Julie.

Carrie was the first person she saw on Monday, and Flynn marched over to her right away. There was no way she was putting this off any longer.

“Flynn!” Carrie said in what sounded like pleased surprise. Flynn wasn’t an expert in Carrie tones of voice anymore, but she retained a few skills.

“Hi,” Flynn said. Her voice failed her, which was rude of it. She swallowed, trying to figure out how to start the conversation.

“So are we girlfriends now, or…” Carrie blurted.

“Are we?” Flynn asked.

“I’d like that,” Carrie said. “If you would. Would you?”

“Yeah,” Flynn said. There was more to it, though. “How… how out are you?” she asked.

“Dad knows,” Carrie said, which was a very simple way of putting it. “And he’s the only one I was really worried about coming out to? Not like anybody else’s opinion on my sexuality really matters.”

She actually _flipped_ her hair as she said that. Flynn shook her head in mildly disgusted wonder.

“Ok, then,” Flynn said. “I haven’t told my parents, not yet, but everybody else already knows or guessed?”

“So it’s just a matter of it being you and…” Carrie trailed off and took a step back from Flynn, her eyes flitting nervously to something just past Flynn’s shoulder.

“Carrie?”

It was Kayla, who was eyeing Flynn with equal parts disdain and confusion. Flynn looked back at Carrie, who’d stiffened up.

“Oh, no,” Flynn said. “Carrie, I need to talk to you. Alone. Now.” She seized her maybe-not-a-girlfriend-after-all’s wrist and towed her away from her locker.

“Flynn! Let go!” Carrie demanded.

“What was that?” Flynn said. “Because maybe I’m overreacting, but I would rather talk about this now, ok, so – why did you do that?”

“Do – I didn’t do anything,” Carrie muttered, but something in her voice didn’t ring true.

“Look, if you really aren’t ready to be out to Kayla, that’s fine, tell me,” Flynn said. “But I’m not your secret. You don’t get to be ashamed of me. I deserve better than that.”

“I know,” Carrie said. “You do.”

“Good,” Flynn said.

“It was habit,” Carrie said. “I’m sorry.”

“Good,” Flynn said again, not sure what else to say now that the fear had passed. “I… probably overreacted.”

“No,” Carrie admitted. “I think I might have tried it, if you’d let me. I _am_ sorry.”

“Oh,” Flynn said. “I – you know, apparently my type is ‘decent person’ which is weird but I think that sentence alone made me sixty percent gayer.”

Carrie laughed. Flynn mentally patted herself on the back for that one.

“So we’re girlfriends,” Carrie said. “And we can… hold hands, and kiss each other on the cheek and things?”

“That is way more adorable than I expected from you,” Flynn said. “Also, yes. I am very down for that.”

“Good,” Carrie said, swooping in to kiss Flynn on the cheek.

“Flynn?”

Flynn and Carrie turned to see Julie staring at them, looking like she was trying to do calculus in her head.

“Well, have fun,” Carrie said brightly. “I should go see what Kayla wants.”

“Wait, Carrie –“

The absolute traitor practically ran away, leaving Flynn to look at Julie and smile nervously.

“I have _so_ much to tell you,” Flynn said.

“Yeah,” Julie agreed. “What was that? And did it have anything to do with why Trevor Wilson showed up at my house this weekend?”

Flynn laughed and pulled Julie into a hug.

“ _That_ was your girl getting what she deserves in the form of a weirdly mean girlfriend,” Flynn said, leaving her arm around Julie as they broke the hug. “And as for Trevor… yeah. It’s a really long story, and as you probably guessed, it involves time travel.”

“I really wish that wasn’t a normal thing in our lives,” Julie said drily. She bumped her hip into Flynn’s, and together they headed for their first class.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And here we are again, at the end of yet another absurd adventure.  
> Thank you all so much for sticking with this ridiculous ride, especially given the sheer number of words you all had to read even to be able to START this fic with the right context. We creep ever closer to the end of this series - I have two more big fics planned with one interlude in the middle, and then it's all just extras and outtakes that I've been threatening to do, but the main story will be complete. Your support means so much, and this series would probably not be how it is without you.  
> The next interlude will take a look at a few relationships that didn't get a moment here at the end, because I wanted to keep this chapter focused on the character dynamics that drove the fic, but rest assured - I will absolutely be giving Carrie and Julie time to talk, past and all. I have a lot of thoughts about redemption being separate from forgiveness (and how you can be worthy of empathy while still maybe not even achieving redemption, see trevor's entire scene) so don't expect like. some tearful mutual "sorries" and suddenly they're best friends. I believe in complicated relationships, dang it!  
> sorry. I'm very excited about this next interlude. We get many character dynamics in what will I hope be digestible vignettes.  
> I hope you enjoyed this as much as I enjoyed writing it, and that I can continue to provide stories that are both absolutely bonkers and deeply emotional.


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